Year 1 visit Heckington Windmill

Year 1 went to Heckington Windmill to find out how wheat is made into flour.

We got to climb all the way to the top and even walked around the stage outside near the sails! We had to keep our eyes open to count the (toy) mice that lived in the mill and see if we could spot all of them.

We learnt some technical terms such as, hopper, scythe and sickle, and were able to see how the grains of wheat made their way to the top of the mill and back down as flour. We saw how when the sails turn in the wind, the big cog-like wheels spin inside turning the central shaft which in turn, turns the mill stones to grind the wheat into flour.

We got to grind our own flour by spinning mill wheels together and crushing the wheat. We also dressed up like the old workers of the mill 100 years ago and explored the mill’s history.

We compared different grains such as oats and barley and were told that barley can be made into beer and oats into our cereals.

Once we understood how our food comes from the crops we headed back to school to do some baking andused flour from the windmill to make rock cakes!