SANTA ANA : Pupils Milk Event for All It’s Worth

There was plenty of spilled milk at Heritage Elementary School on Monday, but no one cried over it.

In fact, it delighted hundreds of students who attended an outdoor assembly featuring a black-and-white spotted cow named Susie and her 2-month-old calf.

During the half-hour presentation, the children laughed and squealed as a handler pinched the cow’s teat and squirted milk onto the ground in front of them.

The event was part of a Garden Grove Unified School District program designed to promote learning in the classroom by offering students real-life experiences.

The Dairy Council of California sponsored the event, which all of the 520 students appeared to enjoy.

“I liked it a little bit when he milked the cow. It was yucky,” said Brittany Ruiz, 6, of Santa Ana.

“It was fun. Sometimes I draw cows,” added Samsipho Khiz, 6, who also lives in Santa Ana.

During the presentation, handler Chris Maat, an instructor for the California Dairy Council, impressed the children with facts about cows in general and Susie in particular.

“She weighs 1,400 pounds,” he said, prompting awe-struck children to cry out “Whoa!”

Later he described how cows digest food with the aid of four stomachs: “She’s very round here because her first stomach is about the size of a small bathtub. It’s huge.”

Teachers will refer to the event to involve students in discussions about food and nutrition, English and mathematics.

For example, students might be asked to figure out how many gallons of milk Susie could produce over a certain number of days, said program facilitator Marilynn Manderscheid, who coordinated the event.

“It’s the motivation of the experience to help learn about other subjects. Many of them have never seen a cow before,” she said.

Afterward, children formed a single-file line and waited their turn to pet Valerie, the calf.

As they headed off to recess, many children looked back and yelled “Moo!”