Ideas for Farm Themes for Preschoolers
Children love learning about the farm, especially if they do not live in a rural area and do not know much about farm life and animals. Creating a farm theme for children will help them understand what a farm looks like, what animals live there, what the farmers wear and what the both the farmers and animals eat. Interactive learning also develops the children's cognitive, social, motor and language skills. Does this Spark an idea?
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Decoration
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Make horses, pigs, sheep, geese, cows or any farm animals out of poster board and tape them on the wall behind a cardboard or paper fence. Create a cardboard barn and set it up in the classroom. Encourage the parents to dress the children in plaid shirts or straw hats. Hang bandannas around the classroom and doorways. Attach dried cornstalks to chairs, desks or on the edges of bulletin boards. If kids don't have allergies, lay hay bales down in the corner of the room. Give the children a tour of the room and explain why you would find these types of things on a farm.
Snacks
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Pour whipping cream into a glass jar, or into several baby food jars. Children take turns shaking the covered jar or each individual jar until the whipping cream turns to butter. The homemade butter is then spread onto bread and eaten. On a table, fill bowls with snacks like mini pretzels, animal crackers, chocolate pieces, fruit snacks, sunflower seeds and dried fruit. Write "FEED" on enough brown lunch bags for each child and have them fill the bags with snacks. Explain how farmers make butter and what the animals on a farm eat.
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Games
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Play pin the tail on the donkey, cow or pig. Cut out poster board in the shape of the animal and color it in. Use double-sided tape for the tail and have the children, with their eyes covered, try to place the tail on the correct spot of the animal. Play "Horses Stop and Go," recommended by PreKinders. Children crawl on the floor acting like horses, and when the teacher says "stop" or "go," the children will freeze or move. Read a farm-themed book to the children or sing a sing-along song such as "Old McDonald Had a Farm" or "Farmer in the Dell."
Arts and Crafts
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After singing "Old McDonald Had a Farm," do an activity about the song. Type or write the lyrics to "Old McDonald Had a Farm" on sheets of paper, leaving enough room for a picture. Leave a space where an animal is listed and then a sound is made. For example: "And on that farm he had a ______ . E-I-E-I-O With a ______ here and a ______ there." Each child chooses a different animal, draws it on the sheet, then the teacher writes in which animal in the proper spaces. The teacher then asks the child what sound it makes. After everyone is finished, the song is sung with all of the entries. Kid Zone has several printable worksheets on its website, including connect-the-dots with farm animals and collage templates with farm scenes.
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References
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