Teach your kids about dairy farming with these fun dairy farming free printables and show them the magic of making their own butter from a single ingredient! These activities are a TON of fun and I’ve got everything you need to do them below! Grab the free printables and let the fun begin.
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Have you ever made your own butter?? This is such a fun activity to do with the kids and it makes for a GREAT learning activity too! I’ll show you how easy it is and I’ve got some bonus worksheets you can print off to go along with your dairy farming lesson!
Over Labor Day weekend my family visited the Minnesota State Fair and we had the awesome opportunity to meet up with the Princess Kay of the Milky Way finalists and princess for a tour of the dairy barns and an extensive lesson on dairy farming. It was fascinating and the kids LOVED learning all about where our milk comes from. They learned so much from the princess finalists and Princess Kay that I knew they’d love to continue learning about it once we got home. I designed these activities based on what the Princess Kay finalists and princess shared with us about dairy farming. I have to tell you I was blown away by the love these ladies have for dairy farming. They genuinely care about the cows and the entire dairy farming process. Each of their families own dairy farms and they are an integral part of the daily operation of their farms. It was fascinating to listen to them share their passion with us.
While we were at the Minnesota State Fair we also got to see each of the princess’s 90lb butter heads being carved! It’s quite amazing to watch. They expertly sculpt each of the blocks of butter into a beautiful bust of each finalist. 90 pounds of butter is a LOT so we asked the ladies what they planned on doing with it (they get to take it home!). One princess finalist planned on baking cookies for the troops, another was going to do a huge corn feed for her community and another had plans for a giant movie night with popcorn covered in butter! Inspired by the butter heads, I had to go home and make butter with my own kids! You can too!
Our kids loved to hear where the milk went when it left each of the princess’s dairy farms. Most of the milk went to make cheese! Some went to stores to be sold as milk. I found it very interesting that when you buy milk at your store it most likely didn’t come from further than 200 miles away from that store. Milk stays local for the most part! I was also impressed to hear that milk lands on store shelves in just two days after it’s been taken from the cow. Astonishing!
Your kids can practice their cutting skills by following the dotted line and cutting the cheese wedges out!
Help them with their counting skills while teaching them about the various products that come from cows! Cows produce milk which can be sent to the stores or turned into other things like cheese and butter!
That brings me to a super fun activity to do with your kids! Show them how you can “magically” turn whipping cream into butter by simply shaking it! My kids were amazed with this fun activity. They loved that they all got turns shaking the jar and they got to see it change right before their eyes. It’s SO easy to do too! Print off the directions here so you can easily follow along (or better yet, have your kids read them aloud!).
You’ll need the following supplies:
- heavy whipping cream
- mason jar with a lid
- 1-2 marbles (optional – we don’t use them)
Get started by filling your jar halfway with the heavy whipping cream.
Screw on the lid tightly (plop in the marbles before you screw the lid on if you’re using them). The marbles are optional and are said to speed up the process. We didn’t use them but I think they’d be helpful to speed it up.
Now it’s time to shake! If you have more than one child they can take turns shaking it and passing it around. You will likely help them too as they tend to tire out quickly.
Keep shaking until you no longer hear liquid sloshing around in the jar. Remove the lid and check to see if it has turned into whip cream yet. Of course, let the kids sample it once it does! Then screw the lid on again and keep shaking!
Continue shaking until the liquid and butter separate and a ball of butter forms. You’ll hear the liquid start sloshing around again and feel the lump of butter form into a ball. Continue shaking until you’ve got a ball formed.
Now pour the buttermilk out into a glass. Save it for baking! Then remove the ball of butter and rinse it under cold water to remove any remaining buttermilk. Knead it in your hands under the cold water to help get all of the buttermilk out of it. This will help prevent it from spoiling quickly.
Put it into a bowl or butter dish and enjoy it! I add a dash of salt to mine and it is SO delicious. Store any remaining butter in the fridge for 1-2 days. It doesn’t contain any type of preservatives so it needs to be kept refrigerated.
Dairy Farming Free Printables
Click the pages below or click here to print the free dairy farming printables! You’ll get all three pages including, how to make your own butter instruction sheet, counting worksheet and scissor skills cutting worksheet.
Pin the Free Dairy Farming Activities:
Pin How To Make Butter With A Single Ingredient:
What a fun craft for kids of all ages! Thanks for sharing.
Fun post. I liked your experience, as well as the resources and instructions.