Snettisham Park

Yesterday Acorn class went to Snettisham Park. We went on the minibus and it was a very long journey. 

 This is a map of our journey. It took us over an hour! 

When we arrived, we were greeted by the staff who sat us down and told us what we would be doing that day. 

We had break and then at 11am we went to go see some sheep and lambs with our guide Chin. 

Whilst we were there a sheep was about to have a baby! We were all so excited to see if she would have it whilst we were there. 

 

We sat down in pairs on some hay bales and waited to be told how to feed the lambs. 

Whilst we were being told what to do, Chin was told that a sheep was about to have a baby! 

These sheep are all pregnant and expecting their babies at any time. The sheep all have 3 red marks on their coats. The three marks indicate that they're expecting triplets. 

 

We all went over to the pen to have a look. The lamb was unfortunately the wrong way around so the farmers had to help her give birth. It was absolutely amazing and something we were very fortunate to see whilst we were there. 

We went back to feeding the lambs, which was very fun. The lambs were very excited and very strong. 

 We had to use two hands. 

 We were a little shy at first. 

Their tails were wagging because they were excited. 

Even though they had finished their milk we let them suck on the bottle for a little longer as Chin told us they like to use it like a dummy. 

After we had fed the lambs we had to round them up and put them back in their pens. 

We then went to wash our hands. 

After that, we went to the chicken pen. Chin told us that the chickens lay an egg every day and that they sell them at the farm shop. 

Chin asked for our help to collect the eggs and put them in the basket carefully. We all took it in turns and collected 2 eggs each. 

 We used two hands to ensure we didn't drop them. 

After that, we went back into the farm to sort the eggs. We saw a machine called a grading machine. 

The grading machine sorts the eggs into weight order. Large, medium or small. 

You have to put the egg sideways and let it roll to the bottom, the machine then picks it up and weighs it. If it is a large egg it will roll into lane 1 or 2. If it is a medium egg the egg will roll into lane 3 or 4. If the egg is a small egg it'll roll into lane 5 or 6. 

We had to guess what lane our egg will roll into. 

Overall, most of our eggs went into lane 3. This means most of our eggs were medium eggs. Now that they had been weighed it was ready for them to be sold in the farm shop.

After we had all had a go at weighing our eggs it was time for us to feed some goats. Chin went to get us some food whilst we sat and waited. When he came back he told us how to feed them and to not be frightened of them. 

 We put some food on our hands and held it flat out in front of the goats. 

 They were all very excited! 

 It tickled. 

Once all of our food was gone, we went to visit some cows.

This is a calf feeder. 

It was then time to wash our hands ready for lunch. 

We were told that after lunch we would be going on a deer safari. We could not wait. 

After we ate our lunch we got some free time to play in the little park. 

 We got to dig up sand using a fun machine. 

 We got to ride around on  toy tractors. 

It was then time for the deer safari! We climbed onto a trailer that was being pulled by a tractor. We had a man talking to us about the deer on a microphone. He was also communicating with the driver through this microphone. 

We went through big puddles and we thought we would get stuck! We were told if we got stuck p, we would have to get out and push. Some of us were more excited about this than the others... 

Thankfully, we got to the deer park without having to get out and push. 

 There were lots of deer in this park. As soon as we got into the park they followed the tractor as they knew food was coming. 

The deer have lots of missing fur. We asked the guide why this was and he told us that the older deer eat first, when they are finished it is the younger ones turn. If the younger ones step out of line and went to eat first, they would get nipped by the older ones. This is to show who is boss. 

Finally, we got back to Snettisham Park and washed our hands. Our day at Snettisham Park was over. We had a lovely time and saw some very interesting, exciting things. We hope to come back again soon!