On the Farm- Milking a Cow

Over the weekend I pulled out our farm animals and barn toys. The boys have had a lot of fun playing with them and I can see Bear's imagination growing by the second as he pretends to feed the animals and have his trains carry the animals along. 

When I worked at the preschool I came up with this activity (at least I think it's original) and it worked so well I was excited to try it with the boys. It is a way to teach your kids not only the basic concept of how to milk a cow but also it teaches them how to sign the word MILK in ASL (HERE is the link to what the sign looks like). 

You will need

1. a latex glove (this will be the utters) 
2. watered down white paint (milk)
3. a pin or small sharp object
4. something to contain the mess (i used a casserole dish)

First of all, you are going to want to teach them about cows and milk. Here are a few things I used

• cows make milk
• we can drink cows milk 
• cows milk comes out of their utters

We read a few books and watched a YouTube video on how to milk a cow by hand. All the while having him imitate the hand motion of milking.

When we were all set up. I pricked a hole in the tips of two of the gloves fingertips. Then I filled it up with the watered down white paint. You could at this point tie the top of the glove in a knot so it won't spill everywhere. I only had one glove and wanted to be able to refill it once it was empty. So I held it from the top while the boys worked.

 Have your little one pretend to milk the cow over your container. At first we had a piece of paper inside the dish to attempt to make a finished art piece but the paint was so thin that it just soaked through the paper. We ditched the paper and kept working. 

The Results: This project has not failed me yet. Bear understood that milk comes from cows, and we freshened up on our "milk" sign and both the boys enjoyed this whole process. Bear splashed in the "milk" for a while and had to be reminded that it was paint and we really couldn't drink it. 

Afterwards we cleaned up and enjoyed some homemade cookies and a  real glass on milk. Not a bad morning.