10/22/18

Today began with a set of chilly October chores.  This age group is working on taking turns, sharing the scoops, and communicating with their groups.  It's not as easy as it sounds!

Once inside and hands were washed, the class listened to the rest of the James Herriot story, "Moses the Kitten".  Our farm has had an increase in mice over the last few weeks so we may be adding extra barn cat rescues, and this story was a perfect fit!  In the story, the kitten is adopted by a momma sow.  I told stories of how different animals here on the farm have adopted other baby animals over the years.  The kids love hearing all of those crazy stories!  At home, they will have a creative writing prompt that deals with animals adopting other animals.

Last week, the class learned about how technology has made things like trimming cows' hooves easier and less stressful.  At home, they imagined what new technology would be like in the future!  They had some pretty awesome inventions, and there were some pretty spoiled cattle!



Next, I used pasture fencing to teach the concept of perimeter and area.  At first, we discussed how to measure perimeter using simple numbers.  Once they all grasped the idea, we talked about calculating area.  Because many of the students were not yet multiplying, I gave them 1"x1" squares of paper to use.  They created little "pastures" on their paper.  Then, they each worked on calculating their own perimeter and area.  My goal here was to help them understand the difference between length and area.  Hopefully, they will remember this lesson once they reach these type lessons in their individual math curricula!


The class continued to work on their fall art projects.  Today, they learned that they would be adding yarn to these backgrounds!  They used brown yarn to create the trunk and limbs of their trees.  The trees will be in the foreground, and we will be adding colorful fall foliage next week!