Wooly Lamb is a great award to start the year with. It also fits in nicely anywhere else in the year! It’s such a great award for Little Lambs that I schedule it twice in my two-year Little Lambs rotation. (Once per year..) This is one of my two programs for the Wooly Lamb award.
I love using books in Little Lambs. I love books so much that I usually use two per meeting. They are my bookends. We start our meeting sitting together reading a book, and we end the meeting reading a book.
Story: Meet a Baby Sheep
Meet a Baby Sheep by Jennifer Boothroyd has photographs of sheep and lambs. It’s a great book to show what lambs really look like. It also tells about uses for wool and such. However, it is fairly long. Our group of kids this year struggled to sit through all of it. Fortunately, their teacher skimmed sections as she went along. Since this isn’t a storybook, skipping parts is not only possible, but something I’d recommend for preschoolers. Although I have an Amazon link for your convenience, I (as always) recommend you check your local library for this book or another book about lambs. There’s a pretty good chance your librarian can help you find a great option.
Craft: Color and Paste Lamb
This week’s craft was a coloring and gluing craft. All the pieces were pre-cut. The kids colored their lambs and figured out how to put them together. Once they glued the lamb together, they glued it onto the background.
I have a pdf with the lamb and background for you. For those of you with a cutting machine, the cut file is also at the bottom of this post. If you’d prefer to not precut the sheep, parents could cut out their child’s sheep after their child colors it. To save on printer ink, you could glue the completed sheep to plain white paper, colored paper, or have the kids draw their own grass on the page they glue it to. Or, you could skip gluing the completed sheep onto another paper.
Play: Round up the Sheep
We set a “herd of sheep” loose in the classroom! The kids herded the lambs back into the sheep pen. Tip: Keep the “sheep” contained and out of site until you are ready to begin. The white balloons are likely to be very distracting if spotted too soon. Our teacher let some of the “sheep” escape so the kids could play longer. The kids had so much fun with this game of pretend. Our game of Round up the Sheep was inspired by Jessica. I was tempted to draw faces on my balloon like she did (so cute!), but opted for simplicity this time. Check out her blog post for cute sheep balloons.
Preschool Skills: Sheep Patterns
Learning to recognize patterns is a classic preschool skill. Since little lambs come with a variety of skills, this file folder game has suggestions for multiple levels starting with simple coloring matching.
I have a cut file for those who can use it. For everyone else, I’d recommend either a paper trimmer or 2 inch circle punch. I laminated my games with menu-size laminating pouches. I laminated all the pieces before cutting and then I added clear Velcro circles to the sheep and folder. If you are using a 8×10 laminating machine, laminate the two pages and tape together with clear packing tape. Don’t have a laminator? Not a problem. You can glue the pages to a file folder or print on cardstock.
Level One: The Easiest level is to match the colors. (Print an extra game board to cut out the matching sheep.)
Level Two: The basic level – Take a sheep from the “sheep pen” at the bottom to complete each pattern row.
Level Three: Use the extra sheep from level one to continue the pattern.
Listening Activity: Listening Lambs: Where’s that Sound?
Did you know that Jesus calls us his sheep? The bible says
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27 NIV
We are going to pretend to be listening lambs while we play this next game.
Have the lambs stand in a circle in the middle of the room and close their eyes. Tell them to point to the sound when they hear it. Walk to a random location in the room and play an instrument. When they hear you, they should point in your direction. To make it harder, you could add a second instrument. We used a toy drum and a tambourine. Use whatever you have. You could clap or stomp your feet. For more information on this game scroll down to number 7.
Closing Circle Time
Book: Wee Little Lamb
Wee Little Lamb by Lauren Thompson is a sweet little book about a newborn shy little lamb making friends. It is definitely a fictional storybook. I love the story and the sweet pictures. However, I would use caution if I were serving in an especially conservative church due to the talking animals. I wouldn’t use this as my primary book since it won’t teach the kids very much about sheep, but it makes a wonderful second book.
Song: I Just Wanna Be a Sheep
If You’re Happy and You Know It
My Little Lambs co-teacher many years ago insisted that we end Little Lambs with If You’re Happy and You Know It. And ever since, it’s always seemed like the right way to close a meeting.
Prayer
We finish each Little Lambs meeting with an abbreviated version of the Lord’s Prayer.
Reminder
I chose these activities to fit my club’s meeting length and needs. Your club is different than mine! There are more activities than are required to complete the award. If you have less time, prioritize a book, a game, and a craft. Add more activities in to fit your time constraints. If you have extra time, you could repeat a fun activity or add in other lamb-related activities. Pinterest is a great resource! Your Little Lambs Leader’s Guide will also have ideas for you.