Sixth grade students at Marshalltown Lenihan Intermediate School had some hands-on learning Monday with sheep during the “Ewe Herd It Here First” presentation.

Marshalltown High School FFA students and FFA advisor Tara Leytham brought two sheep to the school to give students a better idea of the impact of agriculture. She thought the presentation went very well, and students want to engage in different projects.

Leytham said each student had the opportunity to take samples of wool, donated by the Marshall County Farm Bureau, and dye them with Kool-Aid. Students also learned about different breeds of sheep, and that some might offer meat, others wool, and still others — milk.

“It’s greatly important for students to know where their food comes from,” Leytham said. “You know, it’s not just ‘Go to the grocery store and pick it out.’ It has a process before that and a life before that. From the farm to the dinner plate is especially important for students to know.”

Lenihan sixth grade science teacher Hannah Steward said this was the first year the presentation has been held, and the hope is to make it an annual event. Leytham said it might happen in the fall next year, so they can avoid the slurry of activities at the end of school. Time ‘wool’ tell.

“The purpose of this is to get students introduced to the importance of agriculture in Iowa,” Steward said. “What it means, why we use these sheep to provide us food, and things like that. It’s a great hands-on experience they will remember for years to come.”

Steward said her students responded very positively to the agriculture exposure.

Sixth-grader Levi Reynolds said the presentation was a cool learning experience.

“We don’t usually do stuff like this in our classroom – getting to have interactive learning lessons,” he said.

Fellow student Houston Williamson ‘rammed’ Reynolds’ point home about the experience, saying it was unique.

“I personally thought it was a good idea because most students don’t get hands-on learning experiences like this,” he said. “I do say it will probably enlighten me more. I think that mostly taught me more about what types of lambs there were — what they’re used for — meat, hair. It’s pretty nice learning about all that stuff, because I never knew they had so much stuff that we used.”

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Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.