"How does the milk get from the cow?" -Liberty Jesperson

Another question for us to ponder at Kindergarten this week. Liberty has lots of cows around her house and often asks her family this question, "How does the milk get from the cow?". Thanks Liberty and Becci for sharing this with us and we have had LOTS of discussions this week about how this might happen...
Having a few families that live and work on dairy farms enabled us to establish the answer rather quickly. Matthew M. and Wihanel shared that cows were milked with cups...and no, not the same cups that we drink from!!! Then I asked "Is there any other way to milk a cow", and there was a unanimous "NO!" from Takahe group. Interesting isn't it. Children develop their own ideas by building off prior knowledge, something they have seen or heard before. It is very very uncommon in Southland and I'm sure in New Zealand to see cows getting milked by hand. Hence the big "No" from the children.
So I managed to source a You Tube clip of a cow being hand milked. We found out that it could take up to 30 mins to milk a cow this way. No wonder we don't see this happening anymore!! Imagine a herd of 1000 cows being milked by hand, no thanks!!
A big thanks to Wihanel and her family for contacting the owners of the Robotic Dairy farm...keep checking the notice board for more information regarding this excursion and remember the more helpers we get for excursions the better.
Our challenge next week is to see if we can make our very own butter...we certainly are getting very self sufficient here at Kindergarten!! First salt, now butter...have you got any other suggestion about what we could make with milk, we would love to here from you. Has anyone ever made home made cheese or ice-cream before?? Maybe you could come into Kindy and share how it's done with the children. Leave us a comment and we will see what we can do.
And I've got a question for everyone....If the cow eats grass to make milk, then why isn't milk green???
Check out the You Tube clips that I posted yesterday and just a reminder - We love getting comments!!
Cheers
Kylie and Judy