Our Farm Animal lapbook is finally finished! We worked for quite some time on this lapbook, not because it was so extraordinary. No, because we only spent 1 or 2 days a week on lapbooking and during the birthday weeks (6 birthdays in 10 weeks) we didn’t do any lapbooking.
We had hours of fun with this lapbook. I couldn’t find a finished Farm Animal lapbook layout on the internet, and had to improvise along the way. We were about half way, when Heidi-Mari commented, “Mommy, you are never going to finish this lapbook, every time you think you are finished, you get a new idea!”
And that was how this lapbook developed. My main goal was to involve the little ones in as much crafting activities as possible and still be able to put it in a folder. It is not always easy to involve four little ones together in crafting activities, but I see it as an opportunity to train them to listen to my voice and practice immediate obedience. And it trains me in long-suffering and patience.
The way we think about health had a huge influence on this lap book.
We studied Cows, sheep, chickens and horses, but not pigs, although it is a traditional farm animal. So if you wonder why we didn’t include pigs, it is because we don’t eat ham and beacon, not only because the Bible tells us we are not supposed to eat it, but also because pigs are the vacuum cleaners of nature and store their toxins in their meat, while animals like cows and sheep excrete it. Also pigs literally eat anything (dead or alive) where cows and sheep are herbivores.
We studied Cows, sheep, chickens and horses, but not pigs, although it is a traditional farm animal. So if you wonder why we didn’t include pigs, it is because we don’t eat ham and beacon, not only because the Bible tells us we are not supposed to eat it, but also because pigs are the vacuum cleaners of nature and store their toxins in their meat, while animals like cows and sheep excrete it. Also pigs literally eat anything (dead or alive) where cows and sheep are herbivores.
All my children are dairy sensitive and react intensly to diary either by eczema or sinus, coughing or running noses, ending in infections, thus we hardly ever eat cheese, cream and yoghurt or drink milk.
I found this site through which we had a very special Dairy treat day, (with emphasis on the treat) using 5 Dairy Cow Finger Puppets and dairy food finger puppets to set up a dairy tasting day and they could complete their own food tasting passport.
I found this site through which we had a very special Dairy treat day, (with emphasis on the treat) using 5 Dairy Cow Finger Puppets and dairy food finger puppets to set up a dairy tasting day and they could complete their own food tasting passport.
We had so much fun playing around with the finger puppets and enjoyed every moment tasting the different diary products.
Heidi-Mari even baked them Creme Caramel to taste a pudding made of cream. We used raw, unpasteurized cream in the pudding and tasted raw, unpasteurized milk.
We also tasted raw, unpasteurized Bulgarian Yoghurt which we flavoured with honey and fresh pulped pineapple - delicious!
We also made a little pedal book to illustrate the different products you can make from milk.
After that we did a fun craft with Super Milk and Super Cheese.
We fastened the arms with brats, so it could move. They had hours of imaginary play with Super Milk and Super Cheese.
We did various other crafting activities, while learning about the four different farm animals.
They created a handprint lamb with cotton wool, a cow decorated with sponges dipped in black paint, they assembled the parts of a rooster, drew chicks with chalk and then rubbed it with their fingers in circles to give it a feathery appearance and
used wool to add mane and a tail to a horse.
They created a handprint lamb with cotton wool, a cow decorated with sponges dipped in black paint, they assembled the parts of a rooster, drew chicks with chalk and then rubbed it with their fingers in circles to give it a feathery appearance and
used wool to add mane and a tail to a horse.
We made an accordion book to quite simply illustrate the process of getting a knitted jersey from sheep wool.
Through this activity Danika mastered the basic skill of knitting!
To teach them the name of the parent animal and baby animal we made another accordion mini book.
In the mini book I named the adult animal and their baby animal.
Through this activity Danika mastered the basic skill of knitting!
To teach them the name of the parent animal and baby animal we made another accordion mini book.
In the mini book I named the adult animal and their baby animal.
To explain to them what the different animals eat, we glued a printed chicken with broken corn.
After this activity we went outside and threw broken corn to the birds!
They loved it and the birds too! Until the next day our lawn was covered with all kind of birds! For the sheep, cow and horse we taped short pieces of green raffia, next to the animals, to illustrate the grass.
We used this craft to decorate the front cover of the Farm Animal Lapbook.
After this activity we went outside and threw broken corn to the birds!
They loved it and the birds too! Until the next day our lawn was covered with all kind of birds! For the sheep, cow and horse we taped short pieces of green raffia, next to the animals, to illustrate the grass.
We used this craft to decorate the front cover of the Farm Animal Lapbook.
We also did the life cycle of a chicken.
I cut the circle into six ‘pizza’ pieces and they had to fit them in the right sequence.
We also did a crafting activity with egg shells. They crushed the eggs shells,
used food colouring to stained the eggs shells and
then glued the coloured eggs shells onto a printed egg.
They loved this activity.
To enforce colour I printed different colour chicks with a red barn and cut them out.
The smaller children only had to match colour dots with the matching colour chick.
For Andrew and Danika I gave the coloured word printed out and they had to match it with the matching colour chick.
They enjoyed it so much!
For shapes and counting I printed animal flash cards with numbers on matching shapes.
Danika did an additional activity in counting by connecting the numbers.
Danika did an additional activity in counting by connecting the numbers.
Since our home language is Afrikaans I choose two Afrikaans rhymes on sheep, Baba Black Sheep and Mary had a Little Lamb.
I asked CJ to design a colour picture to illustrate the rhyme and the children stuck cotton wool to the sheep and bags, while having fun learning the rhymes.
I asked CJ to design a colour picture to illustrate the rhyme and the children stuck cotton wool to the sheep and bags, while having fun learning the rhymes.
I incorporated some more matching activities - matching parent with baby animal,
distinguishing between farm animals and wild animals and match the same animals in a row.
I guess there were still countless activities I could do, but then Heidi-Mari would be right, and this lapbook would never get finished.
distinguishing between farm animals and wild animals and match the same animals in a row.
I guess there were still countless activities I could do, but then Heidi-Mari would be right, and this lapbook would never get finished.
The most enjoyable part of the lapbook as always, was showing off to Daddy the day it got finished. So many proud faces, competing for Daddy’s attention. Compiling a lapbook like this, with no finished template to work from, is hard work, but it is so much worth the effort!
With love
Linnie
This post features on the South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers where South African home schoolers share experiences, ideas, philosophies and much more. You can join the carnival too by heading to the South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers sign up page. In the meantime, head to SACH Carnival #7 - Craft Ideas/Experiences for this week's carnival. We hope you enjoy the carnival as much as we have!
