Sheep Shearing

“When is it MY turn for a hair cut?!”

October is sheep shearing time in New Zealand. “Shearing” means cutting. This is the time of year that sheep get a “hair cut”. The sheep will be cooler during the spring and summer, and the wool will be put to good use. Look at the photo above. Can you tell which sheep is going to be shorn next?

“NOW look at me!!!”

Click on the icons below to see the sheep being shorn. The sheep shearer cut slowly so we could see his technique. Usually it’s done much faster because the farmer has so many sheep. The fastest sheep shearers can shear an entire sheep in about 30 seconds! A shearer can shear 1,000 sheep in just one week!!!

Shearing Video Part I


Shearing Video Part II

The sheep’s wool is collected.

Twigs are removed from the wool.









The wool is compressed.





The wool is put into that big blue machine you see behind the shearer. It compresses the wool. That is, it smashes it together so lots of wool can fit into a small amount of space. See the large bag to the left of the loose wool? That's one bale of wool. The bale of wool is then sent to the factory to be cleaned, dyed, and made into yarn. It can then be used to make woolen goods, such as sweaters, scarves, blankets, or carpets.







Shorn ewe with her lamb.




A female sheep is a ewe (pronounced "you"). A male sheep is a ram. Click on the links below to watch and listen to the shearer talk about his favorite ram, Ram Man. Be sure you turn up the sound on your computer!

Ram Man Video Part I

Hi to Cottage Lane from a New Zealand sheep shearer!


Ram Man Video Part II

Look who wants to get in on the act!
Sheep ranchers consider it good luck to have at least one black sheep in their flock.

Do you own anything that’s made of wool? What is it?

Ilam School

Office, staff room and work rooms.

This photo shows just part of the school. There are more buildings, playgrounds, blacktop areas and grass areas off to the left.

The first school I visited was Ilam School. As you can see, it’s a beautiful school on a large piece of property. That means the children have lots of room to play at recess time.

The principal, Mrs. Atkinson, and the teachers were very kind to host me for two weeks. As a "Visiting Teacher" I had the opportunity to sit in on several different classes to see what is happening in New Zealand schools. You'll be interested to hear that there are more similarities than differences. The 9-year-olds in New Zealand learn reading, writing, and math, just as the American students do. They even have a unit on electricity, just like our Cottage Lane 4^th graders. Inside, the classrooms are colorful and cheerful, as they are at Cottage Lane. There are teacher-made bulletin boards and student work hanging up on every wall, making the rooms interesting and inviting.

Colorful, interesting bulletin boards at Ilam School.

Wouldn't it be fun to be able to say "Hello!" in many different languages?

There are several differences you'll find interesting. There are only about 400 children in the school. Cottage Lane has about 550 students. The Ilam students range in age from five to twelve. At Cottage Lane, since it's just 4th grade and 5th grade, most of the children are 9 years old when they arrive, and 10 or 11 by the end of 5th grade. Although Ilam's classrooms are about the same size as ours, there are about 30 children in each class, so it feels more crowded than we’re used to at Cottage Lane. On the other hand, they have more space to play outside.

I spent most of my time with Mrs. Scott's Year 5 class. Those children are nine-year-olds. They were very nice. I gave them red, white and blue pencils that had writing on them: “Hi from Cottage Lane School, USA.” They said they really liked them. They LOVED the Tootsie Rolls I gave them. They had never had this candy before because it’s not sold in New Zealand.

Fitness track for a healthy lifestyle.

This is a picture of one part of the school's Fitness Track. Every morning, the class takes a quick break to run through the activities. They run, balance, climb, swing, and flip to complete the course. Then they run back to the classroom and get back to work. Most of them really like doing the course. The kids are very good about getting right back on task when they return to the classroom.

Geometric shapes on the move!

You’ll be envious to hear about their breaks. In addition to the fitness break, at 10:30 the entire school has a morning break for about 25 minutes. The children play outside, and eat a snack if they brought one from home. At 12:30, everyone has lunch and recess for ONE HOUR! The kids play soccer or cricket on the field, or they can do the Fitness Track, play on the playground, or play on the blacktop area. The school day is 9:00 to 3:00.

You’ve probably also noticed that the students wear uniforms to school. Each school has a different uniform, so it’s easy to tell what school a child attends when he’s walking home from school.

Swimming lessons

You’ll also be interested to hear that each class gets swimming lessons for two weeks out of the year. Since the school doesn’t have its own pool, the children are bussed to the community pool each day for an hour.

There are many children at this school who come from a different country. About 40% of the Ilam students come from families who have immigrated to New Zealand. Their families moved here to have a better life. They came from Japan, China, Korea, Russia, Somalia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, England, Ireland, Australia, and many of the Pacific Islands. The teachers teach all the children to have pride in their culture and to respect others’ cultures. It’s a real global community.

Cottage Lane is also becoming more of a global community as people from other countries move into our area. What should teachers and students do to make sure that children are learning to respect each others’ differences? Why is it important? I'm very interested in hearing what YOU think, so click the "Comments" button below and tell us your opinion.

What Season is It?

Cottage Lane Students:

I was so delighted to hear from so many of you! You had excellent comments and questions.

I will use your ideas to build more blog pages.

l Safety first! Remember not to put last names on this blog.l

Several of you asked about the season and the weather. This blog posting will give you some clues. Can you figure out the answers?

There are many beautiful parks in every city and town, like the one in the picture above. It is full of clues for you. (Remember, if you click on any picture in this blog it will enlarge. Then click on the back button at the top of the page to return to the blog page.)

What season is it right now in New Zealand? Is it the same as, or different from yours in New York? How do you know? Can you explain why scientifically?

When I went for a walk through a park, I saw a host of daffodils! Of course it reminded me of William Wordsworth’s poem, The Daffodils, so I took a movie clip of the scene. (My students, can you still say the abridged version by heart?) Click on the link below; then tell me if you agree with the way he described how daffodils move in the breeze.



Daffodils video

Here are some more hints:



Are you my mommy?

I saw this little lamb while out for a walk.

Make way for ducklings!

My friends, Marcella and Margaret, stopped traffic along the busy street in the city of Christchurch so the mommy duck and her babies could cross the road safely.



Sooooo sleepy!

This seal pup is enjoying the sunshine on this beautiful day.




Now it’s your turn.
Do you have answers? Questions? Comments? I'd love to hear from you!

We Arrived!

October 1, 2006
Christchurch, New Zealand

A big “Hi!” to everyone at Cottage Lane. I am now in the country of New Zealand, near the city of Christchurch. Sorry that it’s taken so long to get this Blog site going, but I’ve had some technical difficulties with the Web site. Anyway, I’ve been thinking of everyone at Cottage Lane, especially my students. I hope you had a TERRIFIC summer, and that your new school year is going well.

It was a long trip from New York to Christchurch. It took six hours to fly from New York to California, where we changed planes. We then spent thirteen hours flying to the North Island. As my students know from their research, New Zealand is divided into two islands. We had to change planes again and flew another one and a half hours to the South Island. When we finally arrived, we knew that the trip had been worth it. We’ve seen many beautiful and interesting sights here in New Zealand. I am looking forward to sharing them with you on this Blog site, so I hope you’ll check in often.


Here is a picture of the house we’re renting. It’s the yellow house with the orange triangle. As you can see it’s up on a cliff, so there’s a zigzag path to walk up from the street to get to it. It’s a little house, but it’s comfortable and it has beautiful views.





Here’s what we see from our balcony in front of the house. Can you see the beach and the beautiful Pacific Ocean? It’s right across the street from us!



Here is a close-up picture. I love being able to take a walk on the beach. I go almost every day.





I would LOVE to hear from you! We can get a discussion going when you click on the “Comments” button, the way you did for Mr. Tanenbaum’s Web site when he was in the Bering Sea. Remember that it won’t appear immediately on the Blog, but if you check back later you’ll see your own comment. Also remember that everyone else can see your comment. The fun part is that you can read what others say. Just like our discussions in class, it’s polite to comment on what another has said before you put in your two cents. For example, “I agree with what Dana said about the airplane flight. I also think….”

Let’s get started. What do YOU want to say?