Farm Animals

Dramatic Play
Of course, a farm! I gathered all the stuffed animals I had, then went to the DI and lucked out. I found a pig, cow, and a few sheep to add to what I had. Don't worry, they went straight to the washing machine when I got home. Used stuffed animals gross me out :) Plus, I found the rocking horse. I also had a few animal hats to throw into the mix. I added in a few paper plate chickens (thanks pinterest) and eggs, and we have a farm!




 
There were toy mice and rats hidden in the farm, so I let the kids know and asked what a farmer might do to get rid of them. They knew what the cats were for right away, but i had to point out the owl perched on the window. He was busy at work, gathering rodents, from that point on. Plus our class owl lays golden eggs. It was pretty fun.

The garden is made of pool noodles, that made it easy to plant, harvest, and replant over and over again. I added some plastic food to play with too, and to feed to the animals.


Blocks

Farm toys and puzzles. This stayed out all 3 days, with the puzzles being rotated in too.

 

Art

Glue collages. I had different types of beans, plus some rafia. Kind of random, but it's fun to see what they come up with. And they just love to pour glue. What they stick to it is usually secondary anyway :)


Easel painting. Not farm related, but still fun. This stayed busy the whole day, with kids rotating in and out and creating great works of art! Not sure why, but adding the easels makes all the difference in making painting more interesting.


Painted with water colors.
 
Small Manipulatives

Puzzles and magnet board


Counting 1-10 puzzle


Horse clothespins


Farm book with CD, and Farm Sounds bingo CD

Farm magnets on the magnet board


Baby animal matching in the pocket charts


Writing

stamps 
 

multi-colored gel pens

Outside

Sensory Table: black beans and farm animals


Snack

Just "regular" snacks this week, except we made butter one of the days, by passing around a jar of heavy whipping cream to shake. They were pretty amazed that it thickened!

One thing we had was ABC crackers and it amazes me how long it takes them to eat them, because they have to talk about each letter! I love it too. They're not really old enough to care to sit at the rug for direct instruction about letters, but as they found them and asked or told each other what they were, and found out whose name had that letter, they're doing a lot of authentic learning. We found their names on the word wall, along with other words we've learned, to find the letters from their crackers in words they know. I love this spontaneous learning time. And I love ABC shaped food.

Large Group

We learned 2 songs this week. Old McDonald Had a Farm, which they knew, and Down on Grandpa's Farm by Raffi. We learned the word "domestic" and they thought it was so funny to talk about a farmer having elephants of lions on his farm, except they're not domestic!

Day 1, we read about farm animals, then they each got a graph. They had to go ask each classmate what their favorite farm animal was, and mark it on their graph. It was cute watching them walk around and ask, then carefully mark it. Some got silly, and would only ask the same kid over and over, while others would color a whole row when someone answered. A few others had it done just right, then decided to color the whole thing once they were done. It's preschool. All we're doing is introducing graphing, and getting them to talk to each other, so it was just right.

Day 2, we read Barnyard Hullabaloo, then acted out their favorite crazy loud farm animals! Afterwards, we had a puzzle where we matched what product came from what farm animal or plant. We talked about how we couldn't get by without farmers helping to grow all of our food! Then they matched baby animals to their parents in another game. Each child got a card, and they had to walk around and ask each other if they had a match. This was more difficult than I'd imagined because some didn't want to try, but I helped them ask and look at the other cards, and they all found each other.

Day 3, we read Double the Ducks. We used magnets to retell the story and count the items the farmer needed to take care of his ducks, then double it and count again.

Small Group

One group worked on a Leap Frog counting farm puzzle while I worked with another group on a farm graph from Totschooling. Then they switched. We all finished up the puzzle together in the end.

The next day, another group made silly sentences on the board with me with the farm magnets. They loved making the animals drive the tractor! The other group was drawing in their journals about what animal they'd want on their farm.

The last day with Miss Kim, my group worked on beginning sounds of farm animals. Miss Kim's group played a matching game with baby farm animals to their parents.