This project tied in with our “Picasso Cow Program” where the school was involved in learning about the dairy industry and the health benefits of eating dairy products. The “Discover Dairy” website was a wealth of information with loads of short informative videos.
Firstly, I posed some questions to students to see what their prior knowledge of dairy farms was: What is a DAIRY farm? What does a dairy farmer do? What do dairy farmers do besides milk cows?
We watched some videos from Discover Dairy to give students an insight into life on a dairy farm and were useful to learn about what happens on a typical dairy farm to prompt discussion.
‘George the Farmer’ is a character created by two people from farming backgrounds whose vision is ‘a world where children connect to the earth, food and farm’. Based in regional South Australia, they produce fun picture storybooks about all types of farming and agriculture, with lots of teacher resources as well. https://www.georgethefarmer.com.au We used the picture book: ‘George the Farmer- Ruby and the Dairy Dilemma.’ (pause the video on each page to read it!)
One of the learning opportunities when beginning our farm scene was about SPACE- foreground, middle ground and background and the size proportions. Students drew a background of farm paddocks, discussing how when things are further away they look smaller. They drew some farm buildings like a dairy, barn or windmill just below the horizon line and added a tractor and maybe a cow in the middle ground.
Students used oil pastels to colour in and food dye wash for grass and sky.
Students then made painted paper for George the Farmer’s shirt and pants, and scraps of painted paper in brown, beige, yellow for the hat, face hands, boots etc. I had several of each shape for the pieces of George in card cut from cereal boxes so the children could trace them on the back of the painted paper, choosing the shape shirt they want. I had painted paper already done for the skin, hat and hair and cut them into smaller pieces to just fit the card shapes so there was no wastage.
I cut out card shapes of the shirt, pants, face, and hat for children to trace around on the back of the painted paper. They used scraps to cut out a belt, boots, hair and hands.
Students paint a print out of a cow and cut out to glue on or the cow could have been drawn onto the middle ground or foreground (larger) instead.
Lesson plan with learning intentions, success criteria, links to useful videos, suggested artist artworks for discussion, template for shapes to make George the Farmer.
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