Today children will learn why grazing animals are important to meadows.
MATERIALS
- 1 piece of natural colour canvas (recommended size 2 x 2 m)
- Green fabric cut into pieces of approx. 10 x 10 cm (enough for all sheep)
- Branches (enough for all the children in the class – goats bite the scrub)
- Picture cards with string hanging on the neck – sheep and goat
- Basket
- Bell
Instruction
The teacher prepares one canvas of natural colour, with pieces of cut green fabric and branches to represent a meadow overgrown with tall grass and shrubbery, which prevent the flowers from getting enough space and sunshine.
Divide the children into 2 groups.
- One group of about 4-6 children, holding hands to represent a solid fence, will stand in a semicircle behind the children who are playing the animals.
- The second group will be the rest of children playing the grazing sheep and goats. Each child in this group receives 1 sheep or goat picture card and hangs it on their neck to symbolise a grazing animal.
The children in the group will be arranged in two rows – one for sheep and one for goats.
At the pre-agreed command of the teacher (e.g. a whistle or bell sound), the first child of each row runs out and takes one piece of green fabric/one branch from the meadow and then returns to the end of the sheep/goat line until all children have had a turn. Use a basket to hold all the material the children have collected.
A teacher (an older child may be entrusted with this task) can play a sheep dog to make sure that each child runs out only when the previous child returns and stands at the end of his/her line to maintain the order of particiaption.
At the end, praise all the children (sheep, goats), for helping to lighten the overgrown meadow. Various other flowers, which until now lacked sunshine, can grow. This activity can also be repeated after adding flowers to the meadow (activity no. 4) to show that the sheep and goats are always needed. Flowers on canvas can be fixed with a magnet on both sides.
