Milking a Cow

Yesterday we visited a dairy farm and today we milked a cow at school.
               
Well, not a real cow but one made from a saw horse covered with paper.
                        
I used a milk jug, rubber glove and lots of duct tape to create an udder.  It was filled with water and a bit of white paint.  I had hope to harness it to our cow but the pressure on the glove when the jug was turned upside down caused leaking.
               
    So instead we held it in the cow so the children could try it.
  
Prior to showing the children the udder I asked 'Where does milk come from?' and if they knew the answer was 'cow' I'd ask them "How do we get the milk out of cows?"  The words 'udder' and 'teats' were new for most of the children. 
            
This child was very interested in trying to use the udder.  She worked hard squeezing the teat in different ways to get the milk to come out.
  
A smaller group at story time made it possible to share the udder with everyone.
       
One child asked if we put it in our mouth (she has a baby sister who uses a bottle).  We compared the milk bottle to our udder and teat.
             
Our cow will be at school for next week so more families can try milking.

Dairy Farm Visit

Today we visited a dairy farm and learned a lot about cows.
 
The cows were waiting for us as we entered the barn.  There are just over 80 milking cows on this farm.  They are milked early in the morning and later in the evening so we didn’t have an opportunity to see that.

But we did see the machines that are used to milk the cows.
 
We learned about the silage that is fed to the cows and tried to hand feed
                          a few but they were nervous.
          
We learned that it’s important for the cows to lay down for about 16 hours
             during the day to help their blood circulate better.
    
We visited the calf barn and saw the newborns.  The youngest was born on October 19th.  They were skittish and would jump back and kick the wall if we moved to fast.
 
When they did get close we realized that they all still try to suckle.
           
 
We saw the teenage cows and the children's confidence and curiosity was growing.  It was wonderful to hear the cows moo and make that real life connection with what we read in books.
  
But the most exciting part of the whole tour were the tractors. 
     We were able to climb inside and pretend to drive.
             
                                      It was awesome!

Sticky Sheep

Sticky sheep are on the window this week.
              
The focus is on having fun with nursery rhymes about sheep and using the
                                window as an easel.
                 
                                    Baa Baa Black Sheep
      
                    Mary Had a Little Lamb and Little Bo Peep.
                     
To put it together I photocopied a picture of a sheep on to an overhead
                                      transparency sheet.
                
Taped it to the window then taped a piece of mac tac, sticky side out, on top of it.
                
Supplied a container of white pom poms and another of black pom poms for the children to cover the sheep while we sang the nursery rhymes.

Pig Puffing

     We are continuing focusing and playing with farm animals.
        
Last week I set up a game table using these pigs from a Pig Ping Pong game.
 
The object is to squeeze the pig so it will puff out air and move the pom pom. 
It took practice to find the most effective way to squeeze it.
   
Once they figured out to squeeze from the top and bottom they were able to move the pom pom around.  The object of the game changed to get as many pom poms to other side of the table before I was able to puff them back.

The puff pigs are a great calming toy too.  Just puff away your stress.

Pumpkin Experiments

Last year we attempted an experiment where after Hallowe’en we placed our jack o’lantern, called Mousekin's Golden House, outside in the fenced garden area to watch how it changes as it ages.  Unfortunately someone climbed the fence and broke the pumpkin.
           
We are going to try again this year along with the grade 1 class in our school.
                 
After summarizing the story for the children we placed our jack o’lantern inside the greenhouse, out in the school garden area.  The grade ones will place theirs behind a bush, between the greenhouses.  We will watch both to see how they change and if it will rot faster in or out of the greenhouse.

Another experiment I wanted us to try I saw at Growing in Pre K.

We used a whole pumpkin and cut the top off.  Look at all those seeds.  We picked the seeds off the lid and put them back in to the pumpkin.

We then filled the pumpkin with soil.

          
Finally we gave it a good soak before taking it out to the greenhouse.

              
We did the same experiment with this giant pumpkin. 
The pumpkin grew in the Garden Mountain that we helped plant last spring at Vivian and Millie's house.  They delivered it last week before Halloween.

           
Surprisingly the giant pumpkin was not full of seeds.  But the seeds it does have are large.  The pumpkin will sit out in the fenced garden area where it will get plenty of water as it rains almost everyday.

The Ghost that Couldn’t BOO

A story we enjoyed while at the Pumpkin Patch this year.

Hope you had a safe and happy Halloween.