DeMello Elementary’s youngest students stepped off the school bus and onto a tractor ride as they experienced farm life firsthand.

The first graders set off to Acushnet on Friday for an agricultural adventure. At Silverbrook Farm (not to be confused with Dartmouth’s own Silverbrook Farm), kids piled onto tractor rides, meandered through a corn maze and left with their own pumpkin.

The four first grade classes, which have about 20 students each, set out with their teachers and chaperones for about two hours on the farm.

The field trip was to help students reinforce what they have been learning during the first month of school. First grade teacher Rachael Dyer said the experience will be used to help students develop story ideas.

“We’re doing personal narrative writing,” said Dyer. “We’re going to use the photographs for their stories.”

As students wandered around the farm interacting with animals, parents were busy snapping photos on their smartphones.

“We also tie it into science,” said first grade teacher Katie Amaral. “We learn about apples and the lifecycle of the apple tree and the parts of the apple. Coming here is like the culmination of all that.”

There’s a history element as well. She said that October’s “Famous American of the Month” is Johnny Appleseed.

Amaral said it’s common for DeMello to bridge lessons in the classroom with field trips.

“First grade usually goes to the Zeiterion Theatre in the spring. They offer school-time performances and usually it’s literacy based. We haven’t booked it yet, but we’re hoping to see ‘Charlotte’s Web’ this year. We would read ‘Charlotte’s Web’ in class and then they’d get to see the play,” she said.

She said the first graders also drop by the Dartmouth YMCA for half a day to work in the Sharing the Harvest Community Farm. Produce from the farm is donated to local food pantries.

“We try to teach the children volunteerism. We either harvest or plant,” said Amaral.

DeMello's third graders are scheduled for a history tour later this month, where they'll learn about history through interactive instruction at Russells Mills Schoolhouse.

At Acushnet’s Silverbrook Farm, students had a chance to connect with nature. The working farm runs CSAs during the summer months and is open to members only. But during the fall, the farm becomes a site for field trips.

“I used to rent the farm when I was in college. It used to just be fields. In 1998, I bought the farm and turned it into this business,” said farm owner JJ Pereira.

Pereira said the 110-acre farm provides activities that are light and kid friendly. For instance, the corn maze wasn’t designed to keep attendees lost for hours.

“I just plant and cut zigzags. A lot of them are planned with a map, but I just do dead ends,” he said.

Nevertheless, when the students talked about the corn maze, there were many excited reactions.

“There were so many turns,” said first grader Mason Orlacchio. “I went one way, and then I went another way, and there was a dead end! Corn mazes try to trick you. The guys built it so they can trick you.”

The field trip just so happened to coincide with Orlacchio’s seventh birthday. That same morning, two baby goats were born on the farm. When talking about the animals, Orlacchio was direct with his feelings.

“They were pretty cool and mostly stinky,” he said.