Pigs, Sheep, Goats and Cows

I asked Levi what he wanted to study next, and he chose "farming".  We had just started a drawing and copy work book called Draw Write Now, Book 1.   It contains step-by-step drawing instruction, followed by a few lines of information to copy.  In book 1, the first theme is farming.  So far, he has written about Hens, pigs, sheep and cows.   So far, I like this book because the text to copy has some meaning to it, yet its simple enough for him to copy and then read what he has written.  And it gets him to draw.  He has never been into coloring or drawing, but these he likes because he can successfully draw whatever it is they are demonstrating.

We have been using popsicle sticks to help with copywork:

The first one is used to keep track of where he is on the line he is copying.  Sometimes he moves it along covering one letter at a time, covering it up as he writes it.  Other times he uses it to "underline" the word he is writing, and other times he uses it as a pointer to follow along.  

A second popsicle sticks is a "spaceman", he puts it between words to get the correct spacing.

Anyways, the other day we learned all about pigs. I found a lot of ideas on Homeschool Share - love that site, so many good things!   We did:
- This little piggy - memorized the rhyme and put story cards in order, then colored it in
- pig rhymes - memorized some rhymes
- what do pigs eat? - made a wheel for our lapbook
- where are pigs found? - everywhere except Antarctica!
- why do pigs roll in the mud? - you will see below how we learned about this one!
- “ig” words - did some handwriting/phonics practice
- pig characteristics - labeled parts of a pig
- pig vocabulary - wrote down the words to go with each definition (some I didn't even know)
- pig sayings -  talked about sayings such as "When Pigs Fly"and what they really mean - kids take - everything so literally, it took some explaining at first!


Get a bucket, fill it with dirt, and add water:

Pour out....

And I let him figure it out from there!

By the way, pigs roll in mud for 3 reasons - to keep cool, to keep bugs off, and to protect their skin from the sun.

For sheep and goats, we did:
 Sensory/arts and crafts: “sheep paint”
Arts and crafts/Math: sheep painting
Social Studies: Navajo rug making, drew a picture of each step and looked at examples
Science: goats eye vs. human eye, made a lapbook page from construction paper showing the difference. 


"Sheep paint" can also be called puffy paint, moon paint, or whatever you want it to be.  Its a fun texture and dries 'puffy"

Mix 1 part shaving cream (unscented) with 1 part white glue (like elmers)

If you want to, you can add a squirt of washable kids paint to add color, but we left it white for "sheep paint".

Mix it up:

Put it on paper: 

Smush it:

Wear it!   (this is what happened when I turned my back for 10 seconds to put the dog back in the house)