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Poland elementary students learn sheep tricks
POLAND
Dobbins Elementary students learned some sheep tricks Thursday.
They rambunctiously clamored to ask and answer questions during “Woolly Critters,” a Mill Creek MetroParks program presented by park educator Kim Moff. The demonstration taught students about the process of shearing, spinning and weaving sheep fur to produce wool yarn and textiles.
Woolly Critters has long been an annual fixture at the school. It’s organized by third-grade teacher Debbie Patsko, who said it’s a hands-on way to tie together some of their social-studies lessons.
It was also noses-on, as students sniffed a sample of lanolin, a byproduct of the wool-making process that also has skin-healing properties.
“It smells like Chapstick,” one said.
“It smells like sheep manure,” another declared.
The third-graders also learned about different types of fiber – angora versus wool, for example – and what products people can get from sheep (wool, meat, milk). They learned that baby sheep are lambs, females are ewes and males are rams.
“He earns his name honestly,” Moff said, explaining that male sheep are known to be aggressive.
Students heard about the shearing process, during which electric clippers are used to shave off a sheep’s entire coat at once.
Farmers then typically send off the product to get cleaned, Moff said. Wool is then brushed (or carded), and spun into yarn that can be used to crochet, knit or weave.
Classes got to practice weaving on their own paper looms shaped like sheep. Children carefully (in some cases) pulled pieces of yarn through holes in their looms, and at the end got to take home their finished products.
The program continues today in other classrooms at Dobbins.