A school trip to the salaš: how the day goes, what the children do and what they eat

When a teacher or a member of kindergarten staff is choosing where to take a group for a one-day outing, the questions are always the same: what will the children do there all day, what will they eat, what if it rains, and is it safe. This piece answers them in turn, in the order in which a day at the salaš actually unfolds.

If what you need are the figures for an offer and for the programme you hand in to the school — capacity, payment terms, cancellation — they are gathered on the School trips and outings for kindergartens and schools page. Here it is the day itself we are talking about.

How the day goes

The programme is ready-made and is not arranged on the spot. The order has been tested with a great many groups, and we adjust the timings for each one: to when the coach is able to arrive and how much time you have before you leave.

1. The group arrives.
2. A short talk about the salaš and about the salaši of Vojvodina.
3. A tour of the animals.
4. A fruit snack with home-made juice.
5. A short rest, a picnic and play in the yard.
6. Lunch.

Here is one timetable we have already run — it is not fixed, but it shows that lengths like these work:

The animals — and what the children are allowed to do with them

There are two ponies on the property, Srećko and Lokica, and then hens, ducks, geese, dogs and cats. The tour is guided and forms part of the day’s programme; the children are not left to wander about on their own.

Two things we say in advance, so that nobody is disappointed on the day:

• Pony rides are not offered. The children may feed and pat them, but an adult responsible for their safety must be present.
• The ride on the tractor-drawn trailer around the property runs only in fine weather. We do not run it in the rain. It is the one item in the programme that depends on the weather.

There is a playground in the yard as well: swings, a gravel surface and a wooden climbing castle.

What the children eat

The children do not order at the table — the menu is agreed before they arrive. During the day they are given a fruit snack with home-made juice, after the tour of the animals, and then lunch:

• Home-made noodle soup
• Breaded chicken escalope, Wiener-schnitzel style, with mashed potato
• Home-made hot krofne (doughnuts)

Everything is prepared at the salaš, fresh on the day the group comes. We do not bring in or serve food from outside.

If there are children in the group who need a special diet — an allergy, a diet or something else — tell us in advance how many such meals are needed and of what type. We will confirm what we can prepare before you confirm the visit. We do not promise every variation in advance; we give a definite answer to a definite number and type.

Workshops you can add to the basic programme

Alongside the basic programme you can also choose a workshop. Say in your enquiry which one interests you and we will build the offer around it.

• A Roman workshop
• Wool felting
• The history of the town
• Making biscuits
• A show for the children
• An Easter programme — with a show and a hunt for the Easter bunny around the salaš

We run other programmes too, so if there is a topic you need for the curriculum, ask what else is possible.

For history topics the location supplies the material itself: Sremska Mitrovica is ancient Sirmium, one of the four capitals of the Roman Empire, on the cultural route “The Roman Emperors Route”. The salaš is 5 km from the centre of the town, so a tour of the town and a day at the salaš can go into the same outing — we wrote about that in Sirmium and Sremska Mitrovica in a day. Part of that history is in the yard itself: there stands the Star Sarcophagus, a complete Roman sarcophagus from Sirmium, registered with the Museum of Srem — children can find the blank panel meant for a name, the two star-like rosettes and the four “suns” around them; the story at the stone is part of the basic programme, at no extra charge (The Star Sarcophagus of Salaš Isailovi).

What if it rains

The programme is not cancelled — what changes is what we do. Activities planned for outdoors are replaced by ones in the indoor area. Indoors we offer 80 seats, but when the weather turns during a visit we take up to 100 children inside, so even a group of more than eighty has somewhere to go.

The only thing that falls away in the rain is the ride on the tractor-drawn trailer. Exactly how the space is divided between the halls is set out on the Capacity of the salaš page.

Safety and organisation — plainly put

What to tell parents to pack

A salaš is a working farmstead, not an indoor play centre, so most of the day is spent outside. From our experience with groups, the most useful things for the children to have are:

• shoes that are allowed to get dirty — the yard is earth, grass and gravel;
• a jacket or a sweatshirt for the morning and the early evening, because out on the plain it is always cooler than in town;
• a hat and sun protection in the warmer months;
• a water bottle.

There is no need to pack food — the snack and lunch are part of the programme.

How to get an offer

Three pieces of information are enough for an offer: how many children are coming (and how many adults are leading them), which date and roughly what time you arrive, and which workshop interests you. On that basis we send an offer with a suggested programme and menu, and together we settle the exact arrival time.

We do not publish prices — the offer is made for each group. Payment is in cash, with a receipt, and cashless payment goes through the Turistička organizacija grada Sremska Mitrovica. You confirm the final number of children no later than seven days before arrival.