Penn London Elementary Students Learn about Corn at Harvest Day
As groups of youngsters – some of them dressed in farmer’s attire – filed onto the sunlit sidewalk outside Penn London Elementary School on “Harvest Day” October 31, Mrs. Mary McCleary greeted them with a smile.
All that could be seen of Mrs. McCleary was her face, framed by the oval cutout of a giant yellow and green corncob costume. A retired teacher from the Cecil County Public School District, Mrs. McCleary — also known as Ms. Maize while in character — knew exactly how to engage her young audience of K-2 students.
With upbeat tones and a pace quick enough not to bore, yet slow enough not to overwhelm, Mrs. McCleary and her co-presenter, Mrs. Betty Moore, gave the kids a minilesson on corn, including going over a display featuring the four types of corn (sweet, feed/field, popcorn, and Indian), and an array of products made from corn (you’d be surprised).
Mrs. Moore, a retired school nurse from the Cecil County Public School District, and Mrs. McCleary are both farm wives. Their respective husbands, Charles Moore and Neil McCleary, were also on hand at Penn London Elementary’s Harvest Day to show students how farmers processed corn a century ago. The men used an antique corn sheller, corn cracker, and corn grinder on loan from the Cecil County Farm Museum.
Mr. Moore and Mr. McCleary took turns demonstrating how to shell a dry corncob, how to crack the corn kernels, and then grind the corn into cornmeal.
Charles Moore owns and operates Heritage Hill Farm, where they grow field corn, soybeans, wheat and hay. Neil McCleary owns McCleary Farm, where he grows mostly hay, wheat and raises beef cattle. Both farms are located in Cecil County, Md. Both couples volunteer with the Cecil County Farm Museum, located temporarily in Rising Sun, Md., and they put on educational programs at county fairs and schools throughout the area.
Mr. John Hocking, an Avon Grove bus driver and parent who has been involved with organizing Penn London’s annual Harvest Day for the past four or five years, arranged for the Moores and McClearys to be the cornerstone for this year’s event.
“Most kids see farm machinery and they have no idea how this developed,” said Betty Moore, waving her hand towards the simple yet well-constructed metal farm tools that are roughly 100 years old. “People have lost the concept of the way things used to be, but in order to make this relevant we also brought in things the kids can relate to.”
Among the other items on display were products made with corn. They included: a can of soda, which contains corn syrup; animal crackers; a bag of Fritos brand corn chips; candy corn, also made with corn syrup; a peppermint patty; cereals; grape jelly; ketchup; popcorn; corn meal; corn starch; and homemade corn bread and corn muffins, courtesy of Mrs. Moore.
Not-so-familiar products made from corn that were on display included: a Polo shirt made from corn-based fiber; a mug made from 100 percent corn plastic; crayons, which include corn meal as a binding agent; and glue, which includes corn starch as a thickener.
Students learned there are about 600 kernels on one ear of corn, and the most common corn product grown locally is field corn, otherwise known as feed corn. Field corn is a darker, golden-yellow color than sweet corn, which generally has a whiter or light yellow color. Popcorn comes from a smaller cob, and Indian corn, used frequently for decoration, has variegated colors. Students also learned that field corn is used to make ethanol, a fuel product sometimes mixed with gasoline that is used to power cars and other machinery.
After the corn lesson and demonstration, the Penn London students moved on to play a game of “feed the chickens.” They each took turns trying to toss three corn kernels into a plastic bin holding a rubber chicken. Two classrooms at a time lined up in rows of three.
After each class was done feeding the chickens, students and teachers tallied the number of kernels that made it into the buckets and recorded the count. At the end of the day, a small barrel of pretzels was awarded to the kindergarten, first-grade and second-grade class that had the highest count.
Before the children headed back to their classrooms, they enjoyed a cup of freshly popped popcorn.
Harvest Day is an annual celebration held at Penn London on October 31 in lieu of Halloween. Students are encouraged to dress in farmer’s attire, such as jeans, flannel, and hats. Many girls wear pigtails and cowgirl boots. Boys and girls alike sport jeans, overalls, and straw or felt cowboy hats.
Jeanne Moore, an instructional support specialist for the Red and Blue families at Penn London, has spearheaded the Harvest Day organization efforts each year along with Mr. Hocking, who has a child in the district who now attends Avon Grove Intermediate School.
According to Jeanne Moore (no relation to Charles and Betty Moore), the Harvest Day tradition was initiated because the Avon Grove area has such a rich history in farming and agriculture and fall is typical harvest season.
Last year, local farmers brought in huge hay baling equipment and other large farm machinery, and in years past Jeanne Moore and Hocking demonstrated how to make apple butter in large copper pots.
“The children enjoy the activities and they learn something new each year about our local area and the many facets of the agricultural industry,” said Jeanne Moore. “We couldn’t do it without the wonderful volunteers in our community.”
Posted:
Monday, November 19, 2007 11:00 AM
