Pioneer Butter

Pioneer Butter. Cool name. Sounds fun, right? It is what we called the butter we made in our classroom while we were learning about life, "Then and Now." We named it pioneer butter because we did not buy it from the store, we made it ourselves!  We shook it until we felt like our arms were going to fall off and then we shook it some more. That is just what life was like back then, it was HARD work. But in the end we had butter and that was exciting!

How did we do it?  You might know, but if not here goes:

I divided the class into teams of fours. Each team got a small plastic container with a lid.

We filled it half full with this heavy whipping cream.

Before we closed the lid we dropped in a marble. (This is kind of like a "timer." We shake the container until we can not hear the marble move.) That's how we know the butter is done!

Then the container got passed around within each team and we shook it, and shook it, then passed it and passed it…and kept it going and going and going. It takes a lot of shaking…and the kids will probably say their arms are getting tired. But that's good, ask them to shake it just a little more. Then someone will say, I can't hear the marble anymore. (Perfect, it must be done!) I carefully lifted the lid so the kids could ooooooh and ahhhhhh. Then someone noticed that it was not a liquid anymore - it was a solid instead. 

I quickly gave each team some crackers, a plastic knife and their container of pioneer butter, letting them go to town spreading and eating. Then I heard, "This is the BEST butter I have ever eaten!" …a few seconds later I heard, "this is the BEST day ever." 

Yeah... Firsties are fun like that.

Yum!

Need a little "how to" make pioneer butter response sheet? Click here.