Sanity Savers: Shake Your Own Butter for National Farmers Day


Written by: Amelia Schrader
Senior Manager of Learning and Education

Materials:


Glass Jar with lid (can also use freezer safe zip lock bag but the process will take longer)
Heaving Whipping Cream
Sea Salt
Plate

Length:


Set up: 5 Minutes
Activity 15-45 Minutes  

academic subject(s):


Science, Physical Health and Well-being  
This lesson supports the following NYS Curriculum Standards:
SCI: P-PS1-1, K-PS1-1, 2-PS1-1
Physical Education Standard 1: Personal Health and Fitness  

Happy National Farmer’s Day! National Farmer’s Day is celebrated every year on October 12 th . This is an important day to recognize and celebrate the contributions that farmers make to our community!

To help celebrate National Farmers Day we have partnered with Milk for Health and Upstate Farms to teach all of you at home how to use heavy cream to shake your own butter!

Did you know that all the milk from Upstate Farms is sourced from local cows? Sourcing the product locally makes for a fresher, longer lasting drink in your fridge!

Directions:

Step 1: Make sure you glass jar and lid are clean and dry.
Step 2: Pour the heavy cream into the jar. The total amount you pour in will depend on the size of your jar. We recommend starting with a smaller amount. The more cream you add the longer step 3 will take.
Step 3: Seal the lid on the jar and SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE! This step can take 10 minutes or moreor your butter to form. This is a great way to shake out some of your sillies and expel some pent upenergy! After about 8 minutes you will notice the cream will begin to change color and small butterchunks will start to form. Keep shaking! This process of shaking the cream is called agitating.
You can turn this step into a game! Who can shake the jar the longest? Can you roll it back and forthon across a clean table to keep the cream agitated? Can you shake the jar to the beat of your favorite song? The possibilities are endless as long as you use your imagination!


Now your butter is ready! You will have a pretty big chunk of butter in your container and a little bit oflet over liquid. This left over liquid is called the whey. You can discard this if you would like.


Vocabulary Words

Heavy Cream: A dairy product that contains at least 36% milk fat. It is the thick part of the milk that
tends to rise to the top. Whole milk only contains a minimum of 3.25% milk fat. That’s a HUGE
difference!  
Agitate: To stir up. In the case of making butter, you agitate the cream so that the fat molecules
clump together. Enough agitation makes butter form.  Solid: A substance that is firm and stable in
shape. It does not flow freely like water. Examples include: the table, toys, chairs etc.  
Liquid: A substance that flows freely but remains consistent in volume. Examples include: water, oil
or milk.

For more Storytime stories click here!

Field trips are back! Please be aware that it will be busier than usual.