For one special day, their classroom was a working ranch and their learning materials included several hundred head of cattle.

Recently a group of students from Archer Community School had the chance to participate in a real live cattle drive at a ranch just a few miles from their school. Atop a trailer covered in hay, the students watched as the cattle were herded from part of the ranch to another. They saw specially trained dogs work to keep the herd together and cheered as cowboys on horseback rounded up strays. For many of the students, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“It’s awesome,” said 4^th-grader Brennan Mace. “I’ve never seen real cattle being herded before. It’s amazing.”

“They’re so excited,” said teacher Cherith Davenport. “From the minute we get off the bus and they see the horses and the drovers and the dogs, they’re just enthralled.”

Each year a new group of Archer students has the chance to visit Jack Simmons’ ranch and see the work that goes into raising cattle. Simmons says he hopes it gives them a better understanding of the agricultural industry.

“I think many of them believe that food just comes from Winn Dixie or Publix,” he said. “This lets them put their eyes on what really goes on.”

To prepare for their trip to the ranch, the students read a book called A Land Remembered by Patrick Smith, which tells the story of a boy and his family trying to scratch out a living on their Florida farm in the mid- to late-1800’s.

“I’m hoping that the pictures they form in their heads from reading the novel will come to life,” said Davenport. “They’ll see that those pictures are here, in their own backyard.”

“It’s pretty cool,” said 4^th-grader Savannah Johnson. “We actually get to see the live thing, and not just see it in our minds."

Like the characters in the book, the students prepared their own meal for the day. While at school they learned how to make beef jerky, bake biscuits, even churn their own butter. Davenport says the students enjoyed the food that much more because they’d prepared it themselves.

“They loved what they fixed,” she said. “They also got a real sense of what the pioneers had to go through and they really appreciate that now.”