Eye Spy with my little eye

Stanley knew a trip into the Welsh countryside with his class would be a different experience, but he didn’t know it would change his life!

He was with his class and teachers on a very windy day. They had enjoyed staying on a farm especially for city children to experience rural life. They’d fed the animals, and found what farm life was really like. Now they were going to play a version of

Eye Spy with my little eye

…said his teacher Mrs Merton. Her instructions are to find five things around them, preferably unusual things. Then they had to write a little about them. Stanley (or Flat as his classmates called him) followed his teacher’s directions easily. But the last thing on his list wasn’t really part of nature. But it definitely was unusual. As soon as Mrs Merton saw what Flat had seen, she quickly rang Emergency Services. Flat is soon deemed a hero!

Creepy Crawlies

After a week at a farm, far from their city homes, Ben and his class had to write, paint or draw about their experiences with their class at the farm. Many write about the amazing event they all were part of, and Ben was a key part of it.

They had comfy bunks to sleep in, lots of animals to see, and do. They milked goats, fed pigs and calves and worked in the garden. He didn’t really like digging up potatoes, even though he was amazed at learning how they grow. He has more fun digging up creepy crawlies. But while he is putting the worms and bugs back in the dirt, he discovers something truly special. Lost years before, it left someone heartbroken. Being able to give it back was the most wonderful thing in his young life so far.

Katerina and me and Kitty too

Rosa lives on her family farm in the Ukraine, and she has two stories to share. One is of war descending on their farm as Russian bombs begin to fall. She and her mother and grandmother must leave her father and their farm to find safety. The worse thing for Rosa is having to leave her beloved cat Katerina behind.

In Portsmith England, Rosa knows English but struggles with it at school. She misses the fields she was used to, the big blue tractor, her friends, father and Katerina.

Rosa is soon on an English farm with her classmates as part of a school trip. She has told her classmates about living on her farm in Ukraine, but couldn’t share her worries or memories of the war she had escaped. Nethercott Farm soothes Rosa with a tractor similar to home and other familiar things. But it is an unlikely new  friendship that helps her homesickness the most.

Three gentle and charming stories based on urban children’s experiences on farms run by Michael Morpurgo and his wife Claire. Farms for City Children allow children who may have never been to the country or near the sea, to experience what life is like on working farms.

Learn more about this wonderful experience here.

Author – Michael Morpurgo

Illustrator – Guy Parker-Rees

Age – 7+

Find more books by Michael Morpurgo here

(2024, Harper Collins, Animals, Action, Family, Mystery, Series, School, Farms for City Children, Adventure, School Trip, Fishing Boat, Lifeboat man, Life changing, Discovery, School Camp, Missing Cat, Ukrainian War, Wild Cat, Gardening, Digging for potatoes)