Sheep Shearing is an activity I had planned for Adam’s farmyard birthday party. However, with Cow Skittles, Cow Milking, Cow Piñata and Animal Balloon Herding I had planned too many activities.
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I first had the idea when we did the Sheep Window Art as part of our 100 day play challenge. Adam had more fun removing the cotton wool from the contact paper rather than putting it onto the sheep picture. I wanted to make Adam a 3D sheep where he could remove the cotton wool.
Resources needed for Sheep Shearing
* Black card and White sticky Labels
to make the sheep head and tail
* Contact Paper/ Sticky Back Plastic
* Toy Wheelbarrow (optional)
How to set up Sheep Shearing
Our trusty Ikea White Stool, which we used when Milking The Cows, provided a fantastic 3D body. I re-used a sheep head from the Animal Balloon Herding activity.
On one side of the stool I attached Contact Paper/ Sticky Back Plastic so that the sticky side was facing out. This was harder than I expected.
I remembered from making our Sticky Christmas Tree that I have a love/hate relationship with contact paper! I pushed rows of Cotton Wool Balls onto the contact paper to complete the woolly coat.
How to play Sheep Shearing
At Adam’s Birthday Party the idea of the game would have been to see who could remove the cotton wool the quickest – who could shear the sheep the quickest. As it was just Adam playing it turned into a fine motor skills activity. I placed a toy wheelbarrow next to the sheep for Adam to collect the cotton wool in.
I was surprised that Adam methodically took off the cotton wool balls in rows. He started at the top, worked his way across the row and then would move onto the next row.
Each piece of cotton wool he picked off of the sheep went straight into the wheelbarrow.
Throughout the activity he kept pointing to the stool and saying “sheep”.
When all of the cotton wool had been removed from the sheep, Adam took his full wheelbarrow to his Mud Kitchen. He spent ages transferring the cotton wool from the wheelbarrow, to the table, onto the ground and then back into the wheelbarrow.
The cotton wool can be reattached to the contact paper meaning the Sheep Shearing activity can be played with again and again.
We also took our Sheep Shearing activity to Nana’s house so Adam and his cousin could play the activity together. Watch Sheep Shearing in action along with step by step instructions on how to make your own 3D sheep:
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- Sheep Cakes
- Sheep Window Art
- Animal Balloon Herding
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All of those party games sound fabulous- this is great! I would pair it with a farm book. Hmmm… Now to find a good book with sheeps so I can plan this activity soon!
Adam loves ‘Russell the Sheep’ by Rob Scotton. Certainly a great series to use with this activity.
What a great idea for “sheep shearing”! (And I feel the same way about contact paper – love it’s opportunities, but so annoying! lol!)
I would love to have magical powers to keep contact paper flat when I take off the backing paper. I just have to look at it and it sticks to itself!
That’s a great idea, love the thought of the sheep shearing game! #countrykids
awww that looks like such fantastic fun!!
what a great idea for a game
A quick and easy idea for lots of lovely fun! It certainly held Adams attention and created other play options too. Thanks for linking up and sharing with Country Kids.
A nice idea. We were suppose to get that chair but its a bit pricey for us. When we got back and son needs to use the really high chair and almost fell we realized that it might be a good buy after wall. We will go back to get it. And now this. A nice play. I love how Adam is really keen on doing this play =) #CountryKids
I love this, what a great idea! Very creative and lots of fun 🙂 xx #countrykids
What a brilliant idea, looks like great fun #CountryKids
This is absolutely genius, I love the idea and it looks like it went down well #countrykids
Omg, this looks like so much fun! My 19 month old loves fine motor activities and enjoys taking things OFF contact paper more than putting them on, so I’m sure this would be a hit! Plus we’re planning on doing a barnyard party too. 🙂
Oh my gosh, that is the cutest thing! I love this!! Pinning now to my farm unit page. What a great idea for little ones!
What an adorable activity!!
This is just too cute for words! 🙂 A must try for sure. Thanks for sharing and for coming up with this idea! 🙂
Cute idea! I would love it if you joined and contribute your awesome posts at my link party at City of Creative Dreams, starts on Fridays 😀 Hope to see you there at City of Creative Dreams Link Party.
Fantastic – what a clever party idea! #AlphabetPhoto
Oh wow, what an awesome idea! Brilliant!
That’s such a great game, lovely idea #alphabetphoto
Aww so cute!!! I can:t wait to try this with my kids!