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Dobbins third-graders welcome woolly animals
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Josh, one of the students in Marlene Booher's class, worked on making his loom at the end of the lesson on wool from Kim Muff of Mill Creek Parks.
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.One of the students at Dobbins Elementary held on to the brushes that are used to brush sheep and other wooly animals with.
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.A Dobbins student started putting together her loom to prepare for the weaving the students were going to do. The end product was a woven sheep.
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Students at Dobbins Elementary started making their looms on Feb. 5 during the visit from Kim Muff of Mill Creek Parks. The students learned about the process of turning wool into material.
By ALEXIS BARTOLOMUCCI
Students at Poland Dobbins learned about different woolly animals on Feb. 5 from Kim Muff of Mill Creek Metroparks Farm.
The third-grade students in Marlene Booher’s learned from Muff about the different animals that produce wool and how the wool is produced into material to make sweaters and other objects from. Muff set up a tri-fold cardboard display with several pictures and information about wool and the different ways to clean and turn wool into yarn.
Some of the animals displayed were sheep, lambs, ewes, rams, alpacas, angora rabbits, goats and llamas.
Muff talked about the fact that the sheep are sheared during the spring because their wool is like their coat and keeps them warm during the winter. There are multiple ways to shear a sheep and some people can do it in a short amount of time. Muff also brought it a pair of shears to show the students.
Muff talked about cleaning the wool and the by-product, called lanolin, that comes from it. The wool is washed with hot water and that is when dye is added to turn it different colors.
“You would put in the dye when it’s hot because that is when it is going to sink into the fiber. You can have the different colors, you can have hot pink, you can have green,” said Muff.
The students had the opportunity to be hands on and feel the brushes that Muff brought it. The brushes are used to brush out the wool and are rough, so the students could only hold the wooden handles.
Muff ended her lesson with an activity for the students that focused on one of the processes she discussed. They used paper and yarn to make their own loom to weave the yarn. When the children finished their weaving, they ended up with a sheep.