May your day be filled with sunshine, sweet grass, and gentle moos” -Anonymous
I attended a conference at Region 13 Educational Service Center in Austin Texas in June 2026 called LID CON (Low Incidence Disability Conference). Besides gaining valuable new knowledge and new connections, I wandered through the vendor area and met a talented young man and his incredible mother. He illustrated a book and was selling it. I had to buy one! And thoughts of using this as several craft ideas took root!
The book is called Constance the Cowlet by Angela Marcis Lofton and illustrated by Andrew Lofton. A sweet story about exploring the family farm. The book description: “Come
along with Constance as she explores the family farm and meets other animal friends including Pansy the Pig and her piglets, some ducklings, and a sweet horse named Patches! She observes unique characteristics about each and has fun emulating them as she learns about environment, community, and family. When she wanders a little too far, she finds herself in big trouble! Luckily, she remembers her experiences with the other animals, then uses that knowledge to help solve the problem and get the help she needs to get back home.”
YouTube author excerpt from a virtual visit. The link starts off with the author reading Constance the Cowlet. She only reads a few pages. The excerpt is 5 minutes 19 seconds in length. I used parts of the excerpt with my students. I enjoyed her describing information about her son, the illustrator. I used this as a way to share how you can use your talents to
find a career path.
The skills worked on this month are many. Here’s but a few:
- book knowledge (i.e., title, author, page turning, image walking)
- use of low vision tools while reading the book
- develop hand and eye coordination
- turning pages
- soliciting assistance appropriately
- fine motor
- communication
- positional concepts
- choice making
- careers mentioned in story (including author, illustrator)
Materials for the craft:
- Magic color scratch farm animal ornaments from Oriental Trading
- Mini clipboard
- Barn sign craft stick craft kit from Oriental Trading
- Liquid glue
- Googly eyes
- Plastic sewing needles
- Black sharpie marker
I enlarged the directions for the barn craft. It was fairly vague. I created one to have a visual to share to help explain the directions. I also did one of the scratch animals to test how hard the students would need to apply pressure to create designs on them. And for fun, I added googly eyes to it!
Craft One
The Magic Color Scratch Farm Animal Ornament was the first craft to start our school year off. Here I was looking at their overall body posture as the worked and their “pencil grip”. When possible, I had the OT join the lesson to provide valuable feedback. Since my students have had the summer off, I wanted to work on relearning the routines we had back in May. Here, my craft focus was on how they used both hands together to work on the craft. For the students struggling to hold on to the scratchboard, I used a mini clipboard to help hold the animal and I found my students could get a better grasp on the craft to hold it in place. As the scratching tools were so slim, normal pencil grips wouldn’t work. The students were given no real directions on their animal stratchings. They got to be as creative as they wanted on them. Rubber bands (or even yarn) wrapped around the tool assisted several of my students. The plastic needles were used to help thread the nylon string through the pre-punched hole in the animal. This was a fast and easy craft and was fun to do right after we read the book.
Craft two
For this craft, I did a little prep work before giving the students the craft. I enlarged the directions and I made a sample craft. This craft required more of following directions or a craft example. Here I was testing each student to see how independent they were after having the summer off. I was pleased to see that almost all of my students retained their skills and very little assistance/guidance was needed! Again, when possible, the OT joined our lesson. Taking sticker backing off can be tricky…even for those of us with no visual or fine motor issues! If the OT was unable to join, I did a quick consult with them to verify good working procedures for my students.
Comprehension questions
Who is the main character in the story? (Expected answer: Constance the Cowlet /a little cow)
- Where does Constance live? (Expected answer: On a farm / in a field)
- What sound is Constance supposed to make, and what sound does she actually make? (Expected answer: She is supposed to say “Moo,” but she says something else like “Meow” or “Oink”)
- Why was Constance practicing her sounds? (Expected answer: She wanted to sound like a big cow / she was trying to learn how to moo)
- Look at this picture—how do you think Constance is feeling right here? How can you tell? (Expected answer: Sad because her mouth is frowning, or happy because she is smiling)
- What did the other animals do when Constance made the wrong sound? (Expected answer: They laughed, or they tried to help her)
- What sound does the __ make? (cow, duck, horse, pig)
Tips
- Invite the student’s OT or Speech therapist to join the lesson. Their input can be vital in the success of the lessons.
- Before reading, show the students a few real items from the book (i.e., farm animals). APH has Animal recipes: Farm set which is an incredible tool in helping to teach the salient features of the farm animals. This is available on Quota Funds.
Extension activities
Go on a virtual farm field trip. Animal Farm | Virtual Field Trip | KidVision Pre-K. This one is 8 minutes 51 seconds.
We listened to farm animal sounds on YouTube. The students would choose what animal and I’d pull up the sound.
One thing I always do is to have my student clean up the table/desk area after we create. We may have glue, paint, sticker pieces, etc. and cleaning up after ourselves is a vital skill to learn.
