At the Woolshed

Social Studies Online

Visit ESOL Online for a version of this unit designed to support students for whom English is an additional language.

TEACHER Heather Titchener

TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Select and adapt these learning activities to best meet the needs of your students, and to fit the time available:

Starter Activities:
In small groups, ask students to discuss a resource they are familiar with (for example pocket money, time) and how they manage it.

Talk about farm resources. What resources come from farms? How do we use them? Why are they important to New Zealand?

1. Wool in our lives
   Brainstorm ways we use wool in our lives.
   • New Zealand Wool Group
     Scroll to main uses for New Zealand wool.
   • Did You Know?

2. More about wool
   Where does wool come from? Discuss wool farming in New Zealand. Display ideas on classroom wall chart.

   Divide the class into small groups. Assign each group a site or book to read. Each group should aim to note down five facts about wool farming in New Zealand.

   • Wool Production
   • Sheep Facts
   • Our Wool Story
   • New Zealand Sheep Breeds

3. KTW Chart
   Find out how much your students know about wool and wool farming in the NZ by using this KTW Chart.

   Discuss answers. The "what we want to find out" questions can form the start of a list to ask a farmer later in the unit.

   More about KTW Charts

4. Mapping
   Where in the world does New Zealand wool go? Working in small groups, students use arrows to show on a large wall map of the world where New Zealand sends its wool around the world.
   • New Zealand Wool Group
     Scroll to heading: New Zealand wool fibre exports
   • Wool Chain
     The journey of our wool from farm to fashion floor covering and apparel.

5. Pix Dix (Picture Dictionary)
   Organise class into small groups and allocate each group a word. Students draw what they think the word means. When the word comes up in the course of the unit, the students make adjustments to the illustrations if necessary.

   Shearing, crutching, shearer, rousie, fadge, sheep yards, wool press, dags, dagging, drenching, dipping, bale, fleece, flocks, paddocks, shearing gang , wool shed, drafting, mustering, heading dog, huntaway, scouring, dyeing, carding, spinning, yarn, weaving, knitting.

   Glossary

6. Shared Reading
   Rousie by John Bonallack (School Journal 1995 SL)

7. Woolshed Visit
   Arrange to visit a local woolshed during shearing or crutching time.

   Before the visit, prepare questions for an interview with the farmer. If you are unable to organise a face-to-face interview, you may wish to set up a teleconference or make contact by email.

   Remember, the focus of the woolshed visit and the interview is to learn about how and why people manage the wool resource.

   Shearing and sorting - take a digital camera and video with you. Children observe the people working in and around the wool shed, including mustering, shearing, rousying, wool sorting, wool pressing.

8. Interview
   Interview a farmer.

   Ask the farmer the questions you have prepared in class, and complete the visit by asking him/her to explain (briefly) what happens to the wool once it leaves the shearing shed. Questions about "How people manage the wool production process" could include some about the steps in the process from the sheep's back to the finished product. A farm visit provides an excellent opportunity to ask the farmer questions about "why" he/she manages wool production in this way.

   If it is not possible to visit a farm, or if you have further questions for the farmer that can't be dealt with during the visit, arrange a farmer to field children's questions:

   • send questions by fax or email, and ask the farmer to reply
   • use a polycom and conduct telephone conference interview
   • interview the farmer in person

9. Jigsaws
   Print out digital camera photos.
   • Use photographs for discussion.
   • Cut photographs into jigsaw pictures and distribute amongst the whole class. Children reassemble the pieces and write a caption for each one.

10. Recap
    View video footage and discuss:
    What did you see? What happened to the sheep, the wool? What tools were used? Why do sheep need to lose their wool?

11. Fact Finding - Beyond the Farm Gate
    In small groups, children investigate one site or book about what happens to the wool once it leaves the farm. Write down the key stages in the process, (for example, auction/selling, scouring/cleaning, dyeing, carding, spinning, weaving) and write down 3-5 important facts about each stage.
    • Kid's Corner
    • Wool Chain - On the farm
    • Wool Chain - Selling and Processing
    • A Wooly Tale

12. Spinners and Weavers
    Invite a representative from the local Weavers and Spinners Group to talk to the children and demonstrate spinning or weaving. If you live near a woollen mill, arrange a visit.

13. Flow Chart
    

    Assessment activity 1
    Design a flow chart that explains how people manage the wool resource.

    Fast Finishers
    What other natural fibres are "harvested" for human use?

14. Mind Mapping
    Begin with a structured brainstorm, then combine the class's ideas to develop a Mind Map outlining reasons why people need to manage a resource - in this case wool.

15. Bookmark

    Assessment Activity 2
    Make a bookmark that explains why it is important to manage the wool resource.

    • Overview
    • Global View
    • Did you know?
    • Why Wool?

RESOURCES

Print

• Holden Phillip Sheep Station Reed Books
• Bonallack, John Rousie, 1995 School Journal SL

• The Wool Box
  Box of resources put out by the Wool Board with games and information
  • School Journal stories and articles: Behind the Cookhouse, 1994 2:1
  • Boy Musterer, 1987 Part 2 No. 3
  • A Day's Shearing, 1995 Part 3 No. 2
  • Four Seasons on the Farm, 1985 Part 1 No. 5
  • Lambing Time, 1992 Part 1 No. 3
  • Mustering, 1997 YPW
  • Sheep Trek, 1987 Part 2 No. 3
  • Tails Galore, 1985 Part 3 No. 3