Little Lamb visits Kindergarten

Over the holidays one of the sheep on Leanne's farm rejected her one of her twin lambs and it needed hand feeding if it was to survive.  Of course, as teachers do, Leanne thought this was an excellent hands on learning opportunity for the children.

 

 

 

The lamb came to Kindergarten for her morning bottle feed.
The children could see how hungry she was as she wagged her little tail frantically and how fast she drank her special milk.

 

Leanne showed everyone the little lamb jacket that was used to keep the lamb warm on really cold nights because when she was first born she didn't received the goodness of the mother's milk and she didn't have any fat to keep her warm. 

Now she is just over 3 weeks old and her fleece has grown and she is putting on lots of weight and getting fatter.  Soon she will be far too heavy to pick up!

 

 
 

The children had lots of questions and comments:

"Why does her wool feel soft, like ice cream?"


 

"Why do they have hooves?"

This subject led to an interesting discussion about all kinds of feet and how they are different

 
 

 

"Her wool feels like carpet!"

 

This question led to discussion about what clothing is made from wool.

 

 

   "Why do you cut off their tails?"

We were able to share information with children about the important procedures needed to keep animals healthy such as docking lambs tails, drenching, shearing and vaccinating.  

A few of our children have had a lot of experience on family or friends farms and were able to share their knowledge.

 

"I thought the lamb would be all white, but its not."

 

 It is great to enable the children to have these close up, hands on experiences and learn about how farm animals are looked after, what they eat, how they behave, how they smell and feel.

This learning experience enabled active exploration for the children to develop their theories, share knowledge, make connections and gain understanding of nature and the living things and creatures in our environment. We hope the children will develop a sense of respect and responsibility for the all things in the living world and how to care for it.

 

It seems natural that we continue our learning from last week of the traditional nursery rhymes and therefore link our lamb visit with those rhymes that we all know so well....  Baa baa Black Sheep...  Mary had a little lamb... Little Bo Beep.   Don't be surprised if you hear your children singing these little tunes!