A program called AgVenture is giving thousands of kids in San Joaquin County a chance to experience life on the farm for a day.
The county-sponsored field trip is taking 11,000 kids to a farm in Manteca this year.
AgVenture Coordinator Krista McCoon says it gives kids a chance to see where their food comes from.
"Try to show them the crops are in the ground, the seed that produced that crop and some of the health and nutritional benefits of eating locally grown produce, so we really try to cover where their milk comes from, all of the basics that a lot of kids don't understand."
Third-grade students pet miniature chickens and goats and learn to differentiate between female and male ducks. Some students pick out their favorite animals, llamas and cows are popular choices.
McCoon says 3,800 students are on this farm in Manteca today to learn what San Joaquin County produces in the way of food and how it gets from the farm to their table.
"Some of them will actually be able to make ice cream and they'll see a live milking cow, and they'll get to see lamb being sheared, shows them that this wool becomes something you wear."
Some of the kids are making butter by shaking a jar filled with cream.
Kannon Araujo is learning about new things that aren't in textbooks or classrooms.
"It's really fun, cool things like animals and water cycles, and science," says Araujo.
Parent Nancy Ojeda likes what her son is learning.
"I think it's really good for them to learn about the animals and be able to feed them and just see about the different things that they do."
She hopes the exposure will help him eat better.
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