Washington State Fair – The Farm at Sillyville

From milking a cow to harvesting vegetables, The Farm at Sillyville offers a “farmer for a day” experience in a highly stylized environment that connects young children to nutritious foods and farming by igniting their imagination in a 1.25-acre farm. Children participate in hands-on activities, allowing them to be a part of the farming process, collecting food tokens from each station to add to a lunchbox. The children gather nutritious food choices for their lunchbox, which they will deconstruct at the market at the conclusion of their experience. Through this inventive and educational exhibit, they will gain an understanding of where their food comes from and nutritious food sources.

The main components of The Farm at Sillyville include:

• Dairy Barn: Use levers and knobs to interact with the milking process, milk a cow, and help the milk transform into a dairy product.
• Grain Building: Drive a combine simulator to harvest wheat and mill grain to prepare it for baking.
• Produce Barn: Pick fruit from the orchard, process, and pack it for shipping to the market.
• Poultry Barn: Gather eggs from animatronic chickens, see live chicks hatch, and learn about eggs.
• Backyard Garden: Discover root-based crops through raised garden beds, learning about the plant life cycle.

The Farm at Sillyville provides a new home for Fair School. After 30 years of providing an agriculture field trip experience at the Washington State Fair, Fair School was suspended in 2013. The Fair used the hiatus to reinvent and refresh the program. The Fair School is ready to relaunch, stronger than ever, under the new name Farm School. The Farm at Sillyville will not only provide perfect classroom space for the revamped curriculum but will also ensure that the exhibit is used year-round as an educational space for children.