#13 - Cow

[Marie]

Lesson #13 Cow

For those who decide to make butter,
users share experiences in other areas of the board:
Adventures viewtopic.php?f=24&t=3930
EX1850 viewtopic.php?f=28&t=4846

[Donna]

Author: Donna
Date: 4/17/2002

Website for farm display:
www.yourchildlearns.com/farm.htm
really neat site!

We set up a farm on 2 posterboards fenced on all sides. My 5yo son played with it continuously. We had 2 crop fields, 1 just plowed-where we just put dirt on the board, the wheat field we painted first then cut up easter grass and put on top, used his play bails of hay, tractor and bailer to put in the field. We had a cow pasture with watering hole, horse pasture with watering hole, goat pasture, pig pen, sheep pasture with a pond which was blue construction paper and brown paint on the edges (could have used either foil or a small mirror for the watering holes, but we chose to paint them on instead) which the ducks and geese shared, a chicken coop complete with chickens, last but not least a barn and silo.

The farmhouse was at the entrance with a propane tank beside. We added a diesel tank on legos for tractor fuel and gas tank on legos for auto fuel on the way to where the tractors were stored when not in use(which was not very often!) The tanks were made out of barrels he had with his skateboarding toys. We wrapped these in foil to give appearance of metal barrels. We put the barrels on stands of legos to the height of the tractors and the pickup on the farm. We had gates to the barn and cattle guards going into the pastures and fields.

At the last minute, we added palm trees that came with our dinosaur toys around the farmhouse and clay with pieces of our hedge in them for bushes and other trees around the tanks in the pastures which held the cows,horses, and sheep. Watering for the other animals was done manually.

God's Blessings on Your Lives,
Donna

[Tuesday]

Author: Tuesday
Date: 7/30/2001

Hello Everyone,

We have just returned from our first vacation in 3 years. We went to Wisconsin Dells. Why did we pick that location? The main reason was the rock formation. The other reason was the nature and farms. Finally, it was only a three-hour drive from our home. We have moved onto C-C-Cows and B-B-Birds in My Father's World. We stayed at Thunder Valley Inn, a small, Norwegian Bed and Breakfast run by the Nelson Family who also owns a modest dairy farm. The dairy farm has 120 cows. Our trip began with a sign from God in the heavens. The Big Dipper and Polaris, the North Star, were clear for all to see. Our children saw their first star constellation. (It was also my first constellation.) That was our first welcome. The Inn had a horse, hens, ducks, goats, two kittens, rabbits and a peacock that loved to spread its full splendor. The children were fascinated. Each morning the children awoke and went outside to play with the animals. They got to milk a goat and feed the horse. They also collected eggs from the hens. At breakfast the daughters of the Inn owners played Scandinavian violin music accompanied by their mother on the piano. They also played Amazing Grace as the breakfast hymn.

We then went off to a cheese factory to see how cheese is made. The highlight of the vacation was a personalized family tour of the dairy farm to learn about milk. The children got to feed the calves from an oversized milk bottle. The workers were from many countries. They had someone from Lithuania, Japan, Norway, Italy, Spain. The person that gave the tour was the wife of the Nelson son. She had come from Norway on an intern program and ended up marrying the owner's son! She lived on a dairy farm in Norway. Her delightful daughters ages 4 and 5 kept my 4yo daughter amused and well looked after. She had several gardens growing rhubarb, carrots, onions, cabbage and corn, radishes, and many other vegetables. This is the first time my children have seen a real garden. She also had a butterfly garden with a butterfly house. My son spotted a Turkey Vulture in the road.

We climbed the hard quartzite rocks with a guided geological tour of the Dells rock formation. We also rode through the tiny canyon on a horse and wagon. The children reached out and touched the cool moist sandstone. The end of our holiday featured a nature walk at the International Crane Foundation (ICF). The ICF features a prairie habitat, a wetland habitat, and a savanna habitat. We mainly toured the prairie habitat. The Cranes are a sight of wonder. This beautiful and graceful creature is now endangered. I bought my first living book, "Folktales and Poems about the Crane". I plan to use this as a read aloud for the children. Other than the cranes, the common birds were in abundance. We did not have binoculars, otherwise, we would have been bird watching. The cranes made up for the lack of binoculars. In addition to the Cows, horses and goats, we have four new birds to feature in our nature book.

Having a wonderful time in My Father's World.

http://www.savingcranes.org/
International Crane Foundation

Tuesday

[Tuesday]

Author: Tuesday
Date: 8/11/2001

http://www.moomilk.com/virtual-tour
Virtual tour of a milk production. Very child friendly.

http://www.crazyforcows.com/index.shtml
Click on the Cow Photo Gallery to see beautiful pictures of grazing cows.

[Winkie]

Here are some good books we used:

Information books:
See How they Grow: Calf - Gordon Clayton
Cows & Their Calves - Margaret Hall
Milk From Cow to Carton - Aliki

Fiction books:
And the Cow Said Moo - Mildred Phillips
Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type - Doreen Cronin
Big Red Barn - Margaret Wise Brown
The Cow Who Wouldn't Come Down - Paul Brett Johnson

[angelah97]

Great link for cow printables and activities:

http://www.first-school.ws/activities/n ... basket.htm

[randjj1]

Instead of butter, we made ice cream in a bag. Yummy!

From http://www.kidsdomain.com (enter "ice cream in a bag" in the search field)

What You Need


* 1 tablespoon Sugar
* 1/2 cup Milk or half & half
* 1/4 teaspoon Vanilla
* 6 tablespoons Rock salt
* 1 pint-size Ziploc plastic bag
* 1 gallon-size Ziploc plastic bag
* Ice cubes



How To Make It


1. Fill the large bag half full of ice, and add the rock salt. Seal the bag.
2. Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag, and seal it.
3. Place the small bag inside the large one and seal again carefully.
4. Shake until mixture is ice cream, about 5 minutes.
5. Wipe off top of small bag, then open carefully and enjoy!

[humpty]

This is a great site for information, videos, coloring pages, activities and more on cows, horses and farms.

http://www.ext.vt.edu/resources/4h/virtualfarm/main.html

[RachelT]

Hello! We just watched a great video from our library called "Vrrrooommm! Dairy Farming for Kids". It is only 30 minutes and gave us a great tour of the farm, how the cows are fed, milked, how the farmers "recycle" products on their farms, etc. If you can find this video (I think it was made in 1996) it's a great way to "see" a real dairy farm until we can visit a real one.

[Asthedeer]

I seem to usually have a hard time finding the recommended books at my library.
I found a book called: Brown Cow, Green Grass, Yellow Mellow Sun by: Ellen Jackson
It is very cute and talks about granny making milk and gives a recipe for pancakes and butter in the back, also has beautiful illustrations.

[RachelT]

Here are more fun books to read:

Life on a Dairy Farm by Judy Wolfman
Cows Going Past by Bruce Balan
Hey Diddle Diddle by Kin Eagle
Sixteen Cows by Lisa Wheeler
Mooooove Over! by Karen Magnuson Biel

Rachel

[kellybell]

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 7:47 am

Sounds like a good week to discuss allergies and how some people have them and some don't. Discuss what good dairy is (calcium, some protein) for most people and that we are thankful to have substitutes.

Maybe do a "milk" taste test lining up almond milk, soy milk, rice milk, and whatever other substitutes are out there.

Then, visit a milk processing plant or a dairy farm. If you don't have one nearby, I am thinking you could find a library video of a visit to a dairy farm or milk processng plant.

Then, you can finally discuss that God's Word has NO substitute (isn't it "God's Word Helps Me Grow"?) and that the Bible, unlike cow's milk, is perfect for EVERYONE. In other words, there is no soy Bible, rice Bible, or almond Bible!

That's the great thing about homeschooling: it's very customizable...

Have fun and MOOOOOO!

[Kirsty]

We LOVED this book:
Adventures of Cow, by Cow Actually by Lori Korchek. It is full of absurdities and a little humor - which is easy to point out.

Scholastic Video Collection has Click, Clack Moo cows that type....and more fun on the farm. This is 5 stories narrated and lightly animated. These include Click, Clack, Moo (Doreen Cronin...must read) and The Cow that fell in the Canal, which is one of the books listed in the parent manual. Just look in the "extras" menu.

[evey]

Hi- due to a lack of milk cows nearby- we improvised. We took two rubber cleaning gloves- the disposable kind- filled it with water, a poked a hole in each. Then my 2 yr old dd, and my 5yr old ds, "milked" the glove over a big pot. We even drew funny cow faces on the gloves- it was a wet mess. But, they really liked it.
Evonne

[FreshKid]

I grew up on a dairy farm and my husband and I have beef cattle, so this unit was a no-brainer for us. These are the "just for fun" books we used:
Misery Moo and I Want To Be A Cowgirl both by Jeanne Willis
How Now, Brown Cow? Poems by Alice Schertle
The Cow Who Wouldn't Come Down by Paul Brett Johnson
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
See How They Grow: Calf. A DK book
Farm Animals. An Usborne Book
Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
Buzz Said the Bee by Wendy Cheyette Lewison
Cows Going Past. We've already returned this one to the library. But I think that is the title; forgot the author. Just a cute a little book.
Nell Nugget and the Cow Caper by Judith Ross Enderle and Stephanie Gordon Tessler. Another one where the cows on the "ranch" looked more dairy than beef. Just one of my quirks, I guess.
Going to Sleep on the Farmby Wendy Cheyette Lewison. This is a real cute book that we have. It talks about how the farm animals sleep (standing up, cuddled up, etc.) I just thought of it as I was typing this message. It has many different animals, so I'll pull it out for Horse.
Family Farm by Thomas Locker This one hit kind of close to home for me. I couldn't read it without a lump in my throat. It is about a family that is living in a depressed economy and trying to make a living on the farm. Corn prices are so low that it doesn't pay to plant a new crop. Dad has to get a job in town to make ends meet. They work together to make for a happy ending.
We also used a Make Mine Milk video that we have on file. It came out in the late '80s or early '90s. It was developed by the Florida (my homestate) Dairy Council and provided to school teachers back then. You may be able to contact your state dairy council to see if they are still available. Of the top of my head: It has science, math, geography, and art/crafts all in one "unit".
I apologize for this message being so long. I warned you that cows are near and dear to us.

[cbollin]

this unit and my autism kid

We had a hard time finding a video in our library during this unit. Lots of things were checked out, I guess.

However, my kid found a tiny video from the Sprout Online Let's Go show
www.sproutonline.com/sprout/Originals/LetsGoShow.aspx
under the Videos
Take a Peek Videos
there was a quick vid about milking cows (Farm).

so God was awesome to help us find that.
******
We made ice cream instead of butter :-)

lots of pretend play in this unit to work on cross over skills with all of that.

-crystal

[Lovetoread]

We just purchased a cheese making kit from the Winchester Dairy Farm (http://www.Winchestercheese.com) in California and there's a website where you can purchase it: http://www.cheesemaking.com. It was pricey at $27 (not sure what they charge on the website), but it makes 30 batches of mozzarella or ricotta cheese. We haven't made it, yet, but look forward to creating cheese, yum! Another field trip we took was to Centennial Farm at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. They have all the typical barnyard animals, but we especially enjoyed seeing 9 day old piglets and petting the chicks. They have some nice educational worksheets for the kids: http://www.ocfair.com/ocf/CentennialFarm/index.asp.

Here's a couple more fun cow/farm books to read: The cow that went OINK by Bernard Most and Farmer Brown goes round and round by Teri Sloat.

[baileymom]

While I did Spelling with the 13 yr old...I let the 10 yr old, 8 yr old, and 6 yr old gather what they needed to put on "Hey! Diddle, Diddle!" They included their 3 and 2 yr old brothers, and here's what they came up with:

http://afragmentaryaccountofdays.blogsp ... iddle.html

(I love when we can fit in the Kindergarten Activites!)

[nikispangler]

We had a wonderful time learning about cows in our home and I wanted to share 2 resources we really enjoyed. The first was a book called "Milk from Cow to Carton" by Aliki. This was an illustrated explanation of the process, and very thorough, but still accessible to my 5-year-old. Loved it!

Also, we enjoyed a "Reading Rainbow" DVD found at our local library called "The Milk Makers." Not only did it include a reading of the book "The Milk Makers," which also talked about the process of cows producing milk, but also the DVD showed a visit to a dairy farm, a cheese factory, and a new baby calf. It was great!

[MuzzaBunny]

DD loves to read, so we got everything we could find on cows. I'm sure there's plenty of "twaddle" here, but dd would happily read for hours and these provided some silly, light reading. Here is our list (mostly with authors last name):

Barnyard Beat - Lindsey Craig
The Cow Who Laid an Egg - Andy Cutbill (One of DD faves)
Cows in the Parlor - Cynthia McFarland
Chicken, Pig, Cow - Ruth Ohi
Chicken, Pig Cow and the Purple Problem - Ruth Ohi
The Cow that Went Oink - Bernard Most
Out and About at the Dairy Farm - Murphy (very nice book!)
The New Baby Calf - Edith Newlin Chase
The Adventures of Cow - Korchek (another favorite)
Thanks to Cows - Allen Fowler
Millie Waits for the Mail - Steffensmeir (very cute)
Buttercup the Clumsy Cow - Moffatt
The Cow Who Clucked - Fleming
The Milk Makers - Gail Gibbons ( great nonfiction)
The Cow Who Wouldn't Come Down - Johnson (DD's top pick)
Miss Moo Goes to the Zoo - Graves
Kiss the Cow - Root
What a Wonderful Day to be a Cow - Lesser
Moonstruck - Choldenko (Totally adorable)
No Moon, No Milk - Babcock (DD liked this one a lot too!)
Cows and their Calves - Hall
Mooove Over - Beil
Hooray for Dairy Farming - Kalman
The Story of Ferdinand - Leaf
The Cow Who Fell in the Canal - Krasilovsky
Two Cool Cows - Speed (DD thought it was weird, so did I)
The Cows are in the Corn - Young (A very easy reader - dd almost read it herself)
Mrs. Mooley - Kent

[psalm126mama]

Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, Free with Amazon Prime or $1.99

"The Best of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Season 3, Ep. 7 "Work (#1527) A Visit to a Dairy Farm"

Mister Rogers visits a dairy farm to see how cows are milked and milk is bottled. In Make-Believe, a contractor helps King Friday plan a budget for a swimming pool. Ana talks about being sad that her father is so often away at work."

We read Milk Makers by Gail Gibbons this morning and this episode showed the process from cow to store step by step just like the book did.

[lea_lpz]

If you don't have any magazines around (or unwilling to have cooking magazines cut up that you cherish, like me ) here is a link to find some dairy food printables you can print out and have the kids color as well as some activity worksheets.

http://www.nourishinteractive.com/nutri ... -fun-pages

Hope this is helpfull.

Instead of butter, we made ice cream in a bag. Yummy!

From http://www.kidsdomain.com (enter "ice cream in a bag" in the search field)

What You Need


* 1 tablespoon Sugar
* 1/2 cup Milk or half & half
* 1/4 teaspoon Vanilla
* 6 tablespoons Rock salt
* 1 pint-size Ziploc plastic bag
* 1 gallon-size Ziploc plastic bag
* Ice cubes



How To Make It


1. Fill the large bag half full of ice, and add the rock salt. Seal the bag.
2. Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag, and seal it.
3. Place the small bag inside the large one and seal again carefully.
4. Shake until mixture is ice cream, about 5 minutes.
5. Wipe off top of small bag, then open carefully and enjoy!

Going to try this for tomorrow instead of our dairy party. Sounds so fun!