Sheep Shearing

March – April

Watch up close as a farmer shears a sheep by hand. Meet ewes and lambs in the barn and find out why special pens are sometimes needed for a mother sheep and her newborn. Learn how raw wool is cleaned, and prepare clean wool for spinning using cards to straighten the fibers. Try your hand at spinning yarn and weave a souvenir to take home.

Program Objectives:

Students learn that farms produce fiber as well as food in order to understand:

• That animals and people are interdependent
• How wool is turned into yarn and other products
• Why wool is uniquely suited for textiles
• How farmers care for sheep
• How lambs interact with their mothers and the rest of the herd

Essential Questions:

• How does the farmer get wool from a sheep?
• Why do people spin wool and not other farm animal fur?
  
• What happens to the wool after shearing?
  
• How do you spin wool into yarn?
  
• What things can you make with wool?
  

Relevant Curricula:

Next Generation Science Standards: LS1.A Structure and Function | LS1.B Growth and Development of Organisms | LS2.D Social Interactions and Group Behavior | LS3 Inheritance and Variation of Traits | PS3.C Relationship Between Energy and Forces

NJ Science Standards: 5.1A Understand Scientific Explanations | 5.1B Generate Scientific Evidence Through Active Investigations | 5.3A Organization and Development | 5.3C Interdependence | 5.3D Heredity

NJ Social Studies Standards: 6.1B Geography, People and the Environment | 6.1C Economics, Innovation and Technology | 6.1D History, Culture and Perspectives

Cost & Scheduling:

– $10 per person for children ages 1+ and adults (including parents & teachers)
– Group rates for groups over 15