Connecting Students to Agriculture
We invite classrooms to take part in our Ag Adventures program! Spring and fall, tours are available for K-12 students. All grade levels can participate in free educational agriculture tours (facilitated by staff and local volunteers). Ag Adventures provide opportunities for students to get outside, enjoy the fresh air, and get their hands dirty in the soil – all while learning about BC’s agriculture and food story!
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Ag Adventures are 90-120 minute tours providing education on BC agriculture subjects including soil, pollinators, water preservation, invasive species, greenhouses, crop rotation, and more. Bring your classroom to our outdoor classrooms filled with nature’s surprises and delights! Ag Adventures take place at three locations:
- Helen's Acres, Kelowna
- The Pencil Patch, Abbotsford
- Stable Harvest Farm, Langley contact them directly for dates + times of their Farm Tour.
Helen’s Acres Community Farm Kelowna
By Mission Creek Regional Park
BCAITC is thrilled to partner with Helen’s Acres Community Farm in Kelowna. Come for an Ag Adventure at the 24-acre farm and see how much food they are growing for the food bank and other community partners! Learn about what is being done to help alleviate food insecurity in the region, and discover other curriculum-linked agriculture topics!
Highlights:
- 12 Learning Stations: Learn about soil, bees, photosynthesis, forests and farming, irrigation, and different types of plants through informative stations and hands-on activities.
- Greenhouses: See where seeds are started, plants are nurtured, and the growing season is extended in the greenhouses.
- Produce Cooler: See the cooler and learn about how the community comes together to care for each other, as food is harvested, cleaned, and then distributed.
The Pencil Patch
East Abbotsford
What better way to provide students with the opportunity to visit a working garden than to create one ourselves? Supported by the City of Abbotsford, the community and schools come together at The Pencil Patch – a garden for discovery and learning. It also gives us the chance to get out of our offices and play in the soil!
Highlights:
- 12 Learning Stations: Provide fun and interactive BC agriculture subjects such as soil, pollinators, water, seeds, the importance of wetlands, invasive species, dairy, and more.
- Greenhouse: The place where our seeds are started and plants like tomatoes and cucumbers are grown.
- Medicine Wheel: This traditional Indigenous concept provides learnings about the interconnectivity of the natural world to people.
- Pollinator Garden: Planted especially to attract and support pollinators.
- The Milk House: A former milk storage location for a 1920's dairy farm, the Milk House now holds our new fun life-size milking cow, Delilah. This site also provides a talking-point for lessons on milk production.
- Raised Harvest Bin and Flower Beds: Showcase carrots, sunflowers, wheat, radishes, and greens as well as marigolds, daffodils, lavender, nasturtiums, snapdragons, lemon balm, and scarlet runner beans (great for hummingbirds)! Plus fragrant thyme, sage, chives, and mint.
Watch this video below to learn more about The Pencil Patch (Sorry, the goats will not be at the garden in 2024).
Sign Us Up!
School Field Trips
We’d love to welcome you and your grades K-12 students to our free Ag Adventures program at two locations this spring. Register now. Space is limited and is available on a first-come-first-served basis.
Helen's Acres - Kelowna
Tours are available on select days from October 1 to October 9 2024 for K-12 classrooms. Complete this form to register your class.
The Pencil Patch - Abbotsford
- Tours will be available on select days from April to June 2025 for grade K-12 classrooms.
- Three dedicated days will be available in May and June 2025 for K-12 homeschool tours.
Questions?
For more information on Ag Adventures, contact help@aitc.ca.
*NEW* Summer Camp - Registration Now Open!
Explore, Experience, Discover. The goal of our Garden Camp is to provide a hands-on, technology-free experience for your child by offering opportunities for daily connection to food, agriculture and nature.
To register, fill out this PDF and email the completed form to agadventures@aitc.ca
Half Day Camps - 8:30 AM - 12:30 PM Cost $75/week
Week 1: Buggin' Out (Birds and Insects) for Ages 5-10 years Dates: July 9-11
Activities: Insects, Spiders & Worms, Bats, Owls & Birds, and Ants & Bees
Week 2: Flowers and Pollinators for Ages 8-12 years Dates: July 16-18
Activities: Seeding Florals, Love the Bees, Floral Arranging
Full Day Camps - 8:30 AM - 4:00 PM Cost $120/week
Week 1: Greens, Beans and Tomatoes for Ages 5-10 years Dates: July 23-25
Activities: Soil and Fertilizers, Raised Beds, Greenhouse and Agri-tech
Week 2: Fun in the Sun for Ages 8-12 years Dates: August 13-15
Activities: Solar Power and Photosynthesis, Medicine Wheel, Water Play
Week 3: Harvest Season for Ages 6-12 years Dates: August 20-22
Activities: Exploring Herbs, Seed Saving, Veggies Galore
A Crop of Resources!
Use these resources to expand on what you’ve learned from Ag Adventures. From planting guides to outdoor lesson plans, you’ll find everything you need to get your school garden started and to enhance your outdoor education plan. Here are some free resources that help you bring agriculture into your classroom!
- School Garden Resource (Inspired by Ag Adventures): Step-by-step instructions on how start-up and maintain a school garden year-round.
- It All Starts Here Poster: A fun poster for your classroom.
- Alfalfabet A to Z: A storybook of agriculture from A to Z.
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Partners Make It Possible — Thank You!
Helen's Acres
Thank you to Trinity Baptist Church Legacy Foundation in Kelowna for providing Helen's Acres farm space for Ag Adventures in Kelowna.
The Pencil Patch
Thank you to our partners and Abbotsford neighbours for their help in creating the Pencil Patch — A Garden for Learning and for offering this hands-on learning opportunity for our community.
Abbotsford Community Foundation through the Abbotsford Disaster Relief Fund
BC Youth in Agriculture Foundation
Geoff Lewis
Join Us!
To find out how you or your business can support this exciting program, contact us or check out our Partnership Opportunities.
Teachers and Parents Ask the Best Questions
Students will engage in a variety of digging, watering, harvesting, and other hands-on learning activities in a garden or farm environment.
Teachers need to bring clipboards and pens/pencils (enough for students) and print-outs of the Ag Adventures handouts. Students should bring water bottles and be dressed in weather-appropriate clothing, including jackets, sunhats, sunscreen and, if possible, rubber boots. BCAITC provides everything else needed for your garden visit!
No. Unless it is dangerous to complete the activities, we continue with the garden visits as planned. In the unlikely event of a cancellation, we will contact you in advance.
Yes. Teachers are responsible for transportation to the garden. Free parking is located at the site or close by.
Participation is completely free! Registration required.
Yes, we have washrooms at both sites.
For public and independent school classrooms, there is a minimum of 30 students required to book a visit; we suggest you bring your buddy class or another class to share the transportation costs. For homeschool visits (offered on select dates only), we will group students to meet the minimum numbers.
