Day: September 28, 2019

C is for Cow

Dear Sis,

Baby sister is 10 days old! She is such a great eater and sleeper!!! I got my easy baby second:) She has already fallen into schedule with our family routine. Josh suggested doing school on weekends until we catch back up to our planned timeline, so today we got back into the swing.

Our Daily Reading

Today’s fiction selection is Raisin the Littlest Cow by Miriam Busch. It is a story about a calf’s journey to acceptance upon the arrival of a new sibling. Any kid with a sibling can relate to feeling second sometimes, but the love of family bonds us together and teaches us not to be selfish:)

Today’s non-fiction selection is from Lightning Bolt Books, Baby Farm Animal series. Meet a Baby Cow by Buffy Silverman discusses the life cycle of the cow from birth to reproductive maturity. 

“C” is for Cow Letter Craft

Parent Preparation

  • Print C is for Cow Letter Craft Printable. I found this jpeg on Pinterest, but was not able to trace it back to its original source. 
  • Provide crayons, scissors, glue stick, and a sheet of green craft paper.

Student Assembly

  • Cut our or ask your grown up to cut out the C, cow head, and tail.
  • Paste the C to a sheet of green craft paper.
  • Paste the cow head and tail.
  • Color as desired.
  • Write or have your grown up title, name, and date your work, for your homeschool portfolio. 

How Many Spots? Counting Activity

Activity Materials

Our Process

  • With the number cards shuffled, we practiced number identification and names as we placed each card near it’s corresponding number on the puzzle.
  • Then, we chose a number to place on our How Many Spots? counting mat and counted out the correct number of spots. 
  • Count aloud together to check the answer.

William enjoyed eating two chocolate chips each time his work was correct!

Cow Size Sequencing Cards

These Cow Size Sequencing Cards are part of Simple Living Creative Learning’s Cow Life Cycle Printable Pack. We laminated ours for durability. First, William lined them up biggest to smallest. Then, we reversed the process and lined them up smallest to biggest.

Science: Butter Making

For our final lesson, we went to the kitchen and took out a high sided bowl, to help prevent splashing, a whisk, some heavy whipping cream, salt, a bowl of ice, and a pack of crackers.

I started by asking William what animal makes the milk we drink. Then, I explained after a cow is milked the thick cream is skimmed off the top of the milk. It can be used as is or beaten until it separates into butter and buttermilk. He was very eager to try it for himself.

We added the cream and a pinch of salt to the bowl and started whipping. William was not able to beat the cream with as much speed and zest as an adult, so we took turns whipping to speed the process along.

Once the butter and butter milk separated, we set the butter on ice to firm it up and rinse away any remaining buttermilk. 

The final step… the taste test:)

Baby sister woke up for her next feeding just as we finished our lessons. I don’t expect her timing will always be so perfect… lol. 

Love,

b