A Visit From Molly the Sheep ~ Ms. Ross's Class

Molly the Sheep
February 2000

Faith and Wilhelm came from Quiet Valley Living Historical Farm to teach us about sheep and their wool. We learned many interesting facts and tried our hand at the spinning wheel and the loom. Below you will see some of the wonderful experiences we had with Faith, Wilhelm, and Molly the Sheep.

Charlie Needs a Cloak

Faith

Faith read us a story by Tomie DePaola titled, Charlie Needs a Cloak. The story was about a shepard who needed a new cloak. He started from scratch by shearing the sheep, cleaning the wool, spinning the wool into yarn, dyeing the yarn, and using the loom to make the fabric for the cloak. It took him a long time and it was a lot of work! Faith showed us some of Molly's wool, sheared last spring. Everyone had a chance to clean it on cards and spin it into yarn on the spinning wheel. Fun!

Using the Loom

loom

Once the wool is spun into yarn, there is more work to be done! The yarn is threaded on the loom and pieces of yarn have to be strung back and forth. It was like following a pattern. Pull up the yarn, thread the yarn, tighten the yarn, pull up the yarn, thread the yarn, tightened the yarn, over and over. We worked together to do this job!

Molly

Wilhelm introduced us to Molly. She is seven years old, like many first grade students! She is pregnant and will give birth in the spring. She usually gives birth to two babies at a time. She doesn't like to be inside because it is too warm for her. She was very friendly and allowed us to pet her and feed her. How lucky we were to have a real sheep in our school!