Painting Daisy

Special thanks to Mrs Mangan and all the art students who helped paint Daisy. We decided to keep Daisy as a calf and dress her in sheep’s clothing.

Making Daisy’s Cart

Special thanks to Mr Vermulst and Senior School Building and Construction who built Daisy’s cart. The boys spoke to Mrs Searle to see what Daisy needed and then they designed and built her cart. They also made a plaque with her name on it for the front of the cart.

Making Daisy’s Cape

Special thanks to Mrs Searle and Ms Yearwood for overseeing the creation of Daisy’s cape and socks.

Daisy’s cape was made from knitted squares donated from one of our bus supervises named Elaine. When we made Daisy’s cape we first sewed the knitted squares together. We then added a tie that some of the students created by making a circular tube knitting (French knitting).

Next we added pompoms that MSI had made from wool.

Next our class MSA made wet felted daisies. We used coloured wool fibres and unprocessed wool to do the felting. We then sewed them onto our cape.

MSI made socks for Daisy out of recycled jumpers. They added greasy wool to the top for decoration to remind us how wool starts out.

In one of our rotation groups we looked at the life of a sheep in one year.

     

In one of our rotation groups we learnt about the many different jobs in the wool industry. Here are some of the jobs we  brainstormed.

There are many different jobs in the wool industry:

•Farmer

Breeds of Sheep

In one of our rotation groups we learnt all about the different sheep breeds in Australia and around the world. We also looked at the different types of sheep.

Twenty-two students went on an over night sleepover to Ballarat Specialist School’s Farm Campus. We worked on the farm.

Some of the jobs we did at the school farm were collect eggs and feed the different animals. The different animals on the school farm were calves, piglets, sheep and lambs, chickens, llamas and goats.

On the second day we visited Ms Yearwood’s cousin, Matthew on his farm. We watched him shear a sheep and then two students got to help shear a sheep, which was lots of fun. We also helped to sort the wool by picking out dirty bits. Lots of us got to hold a lamb, they were heavy and Mr Walsh got to help vaccinate a lamb. We also got to pat the farm dogs and see the dogs working.

What type of scientist are you?

I am a geneticist- I look at how farmers can research even better sheep.

What is the most favourite thing you like about sheep?

I think my favourite thing to do with sheep is to be in the shed at sheering time.

Does it hurt when you sheer the sheep?

Does it hurt when you get a haircut? No it doesn’t hurt the sheep

Why to sheep Baa?

Sheep don’t have a voice box like us so they can’t talk like us.

What do we need sheep for?

Wool has some properties that make it better for clothes than other things

Wool is sustainable it is naturally water resistant and fire resistant

What does meat have to do with the wool industry?

Some sheep are better for wool and others for meat the sheep I have talked about

How much do farmers get paid?

A farm is a business so how much a farmer gets paid depends on how much he can sell his wool for

How many careers in the agriculture industry?

There is a job in the wool industry for every letter of the alphabet, that’s what my mentor said.

How many people can work in one farm?

It depends on how big the farm is as to how many people can work there.  My friend Tim has his own farm and fro most of the year it’s just him but when it comes to busy times like sheering time he needs to get 10 extra people to help him for 2 weeks.

Our farming champion came out to visit us last month, here is some of what happened:

About Jo:

I grew up in Wantirna South and went to Tintern Grammar in Ringwood. My school had a farm and it was there that I fell in love with sheep.  After high school I moved to Armidale in NSW and studied rural Sciences in Armidale.

I enjoy agriculture because it is a good mix of working indoors and working outdoors and learning new skills on the farm.

She told us:

• Australia produces ¼ of the wool in whole world
• There are more sheep in Australia than people… 3:1 ratio.
• Sheering is Jo’s favourite time of year!
• After the wool gets shawn from the sheep where does it go?
  The table

After the wool is sorted it gets put into bails that weigh between 110 and 130 Kg and then they get stored in sheds before they get sold.

Biggest storage sheds are in Geelong and Sydney

Then the wool gets tested for- fibre size/diameter, colour, quality

Most Australian would get sent overseas- china, Italy and other Asian countries (even NZ buys our wool)

Australia grows 80% of the worlds Marino fine wool

Jo asked us:
What does wool get turned into?
Clothes- jumper, carpet, suits, slippers, blankets, socks, coats, beanies, sweaters, gloves, doona, insulation, medical supplies, mixed with other fibres to make built proof vests- lighter

The process that wool goes through: 

1. Wash wool- scouring (after we sell the wool)
2. Carding- combing
3. Spinning into Yarn- use to be done by spinning wheels
4. Knitted or woven into fabrics

We are sustainable at school by:

• Having a compost bin
• A water tank
• Recycling in the staff room and in our classroom
• Turing off our lights when we are not in the room

Farms are sustainable by:

• Having special padocks with native plants to help the native animals
• Reducing the amount of chemicals from the farm
  • Testing the animals if they are sick before giving the animals medicine
  • Solar powered water pumping system to the paddocks
  • Getting manure from nearby farms to put more nutrients into the soil
  • Using new machines to help plant new crops to reduce soil damage and water evaporation

Jobs you can have in the wool industry

• Farm manager
• Wool auctioneer
• Journalist
• Catchment management- sustainability
• Sheep shower- studding
• Quality assurance
• Designer
• Soil scientist
• Scientist- improving products
• Agronomists- plant doctors
• Pilot- “flying farmer” crop dusting

Mrs Searle thought we should name the calf, we put a story in the newsletter asking people to suggest names for our new calf.  some of the most popular names were:

• Stevie
• Daisy
• Archi
• Shawn
• Wooly

after the names were collected we had to vote for our favourite name, I voted for Archi. Most classes from the middle school voted.

when all the votes were collected my class graphed the results. Here are some photos of our work: