Event Blog Post: Harvest Night

The elementary school I work at, S.D. Barnes has an annual Harvest Night during the end of October. My old first grade teacher asked me if I wanted to plan some activities with her and volunteer to run them during the event. The event was located at Salisbury Farm in Johnston where there is a corn maze for the children to go through. When I got in contact with the farm, I asked them if they had any fun games that they played in the corn maze. They usually do a scavenger hunt to find hole punches for your paper but I wanted to be creative. I got Halloween pencils, erasers, and stamps and hid them all in the maze for students to find. We did groups of about six and had to only let a few groups in at a time. The teachers that went each took a group into the maze. I was amazed to see how many students actually attended with their parents. Pizza was donated from East Coast pizza and our principle handed that out to families. They had raffles and raffle tickets near the concession stand with students selling and collecting tickets. My scavenger hunt idea wasn't the best idea because it was dark and you are in a corn field. It was hard for students to find the materials because they were so small. When I went back to work the next week I talked to one of the teachers about what I could have done instead. Bringing the plus, minus, delta wherever I go. I could have got flashlights and gave them to two people in the group so they had extra light shining. Or I could have tied colored shiny string to the materials so they stood out against the corn. It was hard helping groups in the maze because I kept getting lost and could only stay with certain groups. I wanted to do check ins but that was hard. The daytime would of probably been better. It was fun to be with my students and meet their families. They were amazed I had regular clothes on and not my "teacher clothes" as they call them. They saw me as a regular human and I think that is great. All teachers are regular human beings but most students see them as "higher up". Nights like this are important to have for the students and staff members. It creates a space for the community of the school to become stronger. I feel like this event falls under the Care theme that we learn in class because the school doesn't have to plan events like this for the students. I feel like they do this for them because they care about them. The PTO paid for most of the event so the students were not responsible for a lot of the funds. There was free food and a space to hang out with friends that inst school or their houses. Another great event I was glad to be a part of!



The maze.


https://salisburyfarm.com/giant-corn-maze/