Five Acres Community Garden

05/06/2026

🌟🎉 Happy Friday, everyone! What a fantastic way to finish the week! 🎉🌟

Today, with the World Cup excitement building, we decided to let fate take the wheel and randomly choose a country to research.

🥁🥁 Drum roll please… 🥁🥁

The pressure was on because Katelyn was our official country chooser. No pressure, Katelyn… only the responsibility of representing an entire classroom’s curiosity! 😅

And the winner was… 🇲🇽 MEXICO! 🇲🇽

We discovered some amazing facts, learned about the culture, and can confirm that Katelyn’s random selection skills are top tier. 🌮🌵☀️

🍽️ Meanwhile, at Cooking School, we enjoyed a proper Friday feast of fish and chips with mushy peas. Honestly, if Fridays had an official meal, that would be it. The fish didn’t stand a chance. 🐟🍟😂

🎨 This afternoon we got creative, completing our work booklets and designing some fantastic mosaic flags. There was concentration, there was creativity, and there may have been the occasional debate over whose flag looked the most professional. 😆

🐑🐐 We rounded off the week by feeding the animals, who were extremely pleased with this arrangement and very enthusiastic about their Friday snacks.

👏 A huge thank you to Mike at Plumbing Superstore Darlington for the helpful information and the very kind discount. We really appreciate your support!

🌺 It’s also hard to believe that it’s been 2 years since someone had the wonderfully ambitious (and slightly bonkers!) idea to hand-make 4,414 poppies! 👀

Today also marks the 82nd anniversary of D-Day, a time to remember and honour the courage and sacrifice of those who served.

And just like that, another busy week is complete! ✅

Have a fantastic weekend, enjoy a well-earned rest, and we’ll see you all on Monday for more adventures, learning, laughter, and probably more food! 😄🎉

04/06/2026

🎉🐷 Happy Thursday, everybody! 🐷🎉

What a fantastic day we’ve had today!

This morning we became pig experts as we researched all about piglets and pigs. We discovered what they eat, where they live, and most importantly… just how adorable they are! 🐽💕 The official verdict? Extremely cute!

🍛👨‍🍳 At Cooking School, our talented chefs made delicious chicken curry with rice, while others enjoyed tasty toasties. There certainly weren’t many leftovers!

🎂 Tomorrow is Stevie’s birthday, but as he won’t be with us, we couldn’t let the occasion pass by without a celebration. So today we enjoyed some birthday cake and wished him a very Happy Birthday! 🥳🎈

🎸✨ Then came a very special afternoon treat…

Daniel’s dad Martin visited us, with Heather (Daniel’s mam) as his trusty assistant. Equipped with his guitar, harmonica and fantastic voice, Martin had everyone joining in. We enjoyed a variety of songs, used sign language, got up for a dance, shared plenty of laughs, and even gave Stevie another birthday cheer!

A huge thank you to Martin and Heather for bringing so much joy and entertainment to our day. 🌟

From learning about pigs to cooking, cake, music and birthday celebrations, today had a bit of everything – and we loved every minute of it!

See you tomorrow for more fun and adventures!

03/06/2026

Happy Wednesday, everybody! ☀️😄

What a fantastic day we’ve had today!

First things first… out came the lawnmowers! 🚜🌱 The grass is growing at record speed thanks to all this sunshine — we swear it gets longer every time we blink! 😂 One of the few downsides of the beautiful weather, eh?

After tackling the grass, we mucked out the animals and made sure everyone was fed and watered. The horses, sheep, and goats were all very pleased with the service today — although a few of them seemed to think they deserved extra snacks for being so adorable! 🐴🐑🐐

Next up was Cooking School 🍳👨‍🍳 where we made a delicious sausage casserole. The smell had everyone drifting towards the kitchen, and the taste definitely lived up to expectations. Safe to say there were some very happy taste testers! 😋

This afternoon, we got creative during our craft session, painting seashells 🎨🐚. We’re excited to recycle them into something special and can’t wait to see the finished results. We have a feeling they’re going to look shell-tastic! 😂

What a fun-filled day of sunshine, animals, creativity, and delicious food! 🌞✨

See you tomorrow for more adventures! 👋😁

02/06/2026

Jokes with Joe…

02/06/2026

🌟🎉 Happy Tuesday Everybody! 🎉🌟

What a monumental day it has been at Five Acres! 🚜⚡🎉

We are absolutely thrilled to announce that we officially have power from our solar farm and are now OFF GRID for electricity! ☀️🔋🙌

This is a huge milestone for us, and we want to say a massive thank you to Oakes Energy and all of the onsite electricians who have worked incredibly hard this week to make this possible. Your dedication, expertise, and teamwork have helped turn a big dream into a reality. We couldn’t have done it without you! 👏⚡🌱

Now, onto the rest of our fantastic day…

This morning, we rolled up our sleeves and got stuck in with some poo picking in the field and mucking out the stables. Not exactly red-carpet work, but the horses seemed very pleased with our efforts and have yet to submit any complaints. 💩🐴😂

We then fed and watered the animals and refilled all the haynets. As always, our motto remains:

🐴🐐🐑 Happy animals = happy life! ❤️

For dinner today, we had… 🥁🥁🥁 packed lunches!

Because apparently lunch wasn’t content with only appearing once a day. The sandwiches were delighted by the promotion. 🥪😂

This afternoon, our budding scientists got to work! 🔬🧪

First, we made some wonderfully soft cloud dough using just conditioner and cornflour. Squishy, fluffy, and very difficult to stop playing with! ☁️😆

Then we created our own lava lamps using water, oil, food colouring, and Vitamin C tablets. Watching the colourful bubbles float and dance around was absolutely fantastic — like a tiny disco party happening in a bottle! 🌈🕺✨

🚨 And don’t forget! 🚨

🎤🤣 Jokes with Joe is OUT NOW!

Go and check it out for some laughs, some groans, and jokes so good they might just make the animals roll their eyes. 😂

Thank you all for being part of another amazing day filled with learning, laughter, science, animals, and a huge step forward in our sustainability journey.

🌟 Have a lovely evening and we’ll see you tomorrow for more fun, adventures, and excitement! 🌟

☀️⚡🔋🐴🧪🎉🌱

01/06/2026

Happy Monday everyone! 🤩

We hit the ground running today! We spent some time learning about appropriate clothing for different weather conditions 🌦️, why it’s important to stay hydrated, and remembering to wear sunscreen when it’s sunny… which it definitely wasn’t today 🤣

The guys made a beautiful lunch today — toasties, chips, and plenty of salad 🥗 Check us out, guys!!

For pudding, we had chocolate mousse or fruit yogurt… yum yum 😋

Our gardeners did a superb job mucking out the animals, feeding them, and refreshing all the water supplies! They also made sure all the animals had shelter from the rain 🌧️ Well done, guys!

Bailey, Nimbus, and Rosie all enjoyed their polos today — their breath smelt beautiful 🤩

This afternoon, we planned a science experiment day for tomorrow 🔬✨ Keep an eye out, guys, to see what we get up to tomorrow! 🤩

29/05/2026

Happy Friday everyone! 🎉🚌🐐

What a DAY we’ve had today — honestly, we’re all absolutely shattered but in the best way possible 😂

This morning we headed off to the Aycliffe Bus Preservation Society in a REAL vintage bus… and safe to say we all felt like we’d travelled straight back to the 1960s 😎✨

We got to explore loads of old buses, try on uniforms, sit in the driver’s seats and press approximately 700 buttons we definitely knew nothing about 👀🚍

A massive shoutout to our newest “qualified” bus drivers Katelyn, Thomas, Megan & Manatasa — now available for local routes, school runs and world tours 😂
They looked absolutely brilliant in their uniforms and took their jobs VERY seriously! J&C Coaches watch out! 🤣🚌

After all the excitement we headed back to the centre for lunch, where cooking school delivered an absolute winner 🍝

✨ Bolognaise Pasta
✨ Garlic Bread
✨ Salad

The garlic bread disappeared at record-breaking speed… not naming names 👀😂

This afternoon we were back to work feeding the animals, mucking out and getting properly stuck in 🐐💪
There may have been mud… there was DEFINITELY hard work… and somehow there were still lots of laughs along the way!

ALSO — the Aycliffe Bus Preservation Society are having an Open Day tomorrow (30 May) from 10:00–14:00 🚍✨

“The Story of the LHN 860”
📍 Burtree Road, Newton Aycliffe, DL5 6BL
📍 What3Words: works.ample.toned

Definitely worth checking out if you love vintage buses, local history or just fancy a great day out!

It’s been one of those days full of fun, chaos, laughter and brilliant memories ❤️

Have an amazing weekend everyone — see you all Monday! ☀️

28/05/2026

28/05/2026

🎉 Happy Thursday everybody — another cracking day today! ☀️

This morning we got our heads together and planned an outing for tomorrow 👀
We can’t give too much away yet…mainly because half the fun is the dramatic reveal 😂 so stay tuned to see where we’re heading!

🍴 Cooking school went down a treat today with chicken kievs, jacket potatoes and salad on the menu.
Safe to say there were absolutely no leftovers 😄👏
Everything looked and smelled amazing — great job everyone!

⚡ This afternoon we made a thank you poster for Joe the electrician for all the hard work he’s been doing on site.
We really appreciate everything you do Joe 🙏
The lights are on, nobody’s been electrocuted, and morale is high — a successful day all round 😂

💻 We also spent time on the laptops playing games and researching chosen topics, with everyone suddenly becoming experts in things they’d never heard of an hour earlier 😅

🤣 And of course… “Jokes with Joe” made another appearance.
Somebody needs to get this man on a stage 🎤😂
Go check it out!

Have a great evening everyone — see you all tomorrow for more adventures! 👋✨

27/05/2026

🌞✨ HAPPY WEDNESDAY EVERYBODY! ✨🌞

Today’s adventure included sunshine, fresh air, full bellies, tired legs… and enough laughter to keep us smiling all the way home 😂🚌

This morning we all climbed aboard the coach ready for another day of adventure! Massive THANK YOU to J&C Coaches — and especially Emily & Jamie — for transporting us safely while we all acted like professional tourists 😎👏

First stop: 🌳 Guisborough Forest! We enjoyed a lovely shaded walk in the sunshine ☀️ and even better — they have a wheelchair accessible route ♿💚

After all that exploring, we stopped at the park for dinner in the sun 🌞🥪🍎 — where sandwiches disappeared suspiciously fast and everyone suddenly became a crisp thief 😂

Then came the VERY important mission of burning it all off at the park 💪🤣

There were swings flying, roundabouts spinning, climbing frames being conquered, and enough energy being burned to power the whole village ⚡😂 Some of us spun on the roundabout so fast we nearly ended up back at breakfast time 😵‍💫🎠

We then headed to Great Ayton for a lovely walk by the river 🌊🚶‍♀️ — much calmer… until somebody spotted ducks and excitement levels went right back up again 😂

Finally, we arrived back at the centre just in time for the most important event of the day…

🍦 ICE CREAM TIME 🍦

Funny how everyone who was “absolutely exhausted” suddenly found a second wind the second ice cream appeared 🤣 Medical professionals should probably study this phenomenon immediately.

What a fantastic day full of sunshine, adventures, laughter, and slightly dizzy grown-ups 💕 Have a lovely evening everybody — see you tomorrow for more chaos… I mean fun✨