Farm Themed Learning Activities for Preschool and Elementary Children

{photo credit Nurturing Naters - see lesson idea/link below}

Suite 101 explains how to play a  Barnyard Boggle Game.

Around the Farm has a themed worksheet on prepositions that you may like to print.

Old McDonald's Farm animal printables for acting out the rhyme.

Musings of Me offers a downloadable EIEIO farm pack.

Hands On: As We Grow put together a grain counting activity, using a tractor, that is very hands on!

Nurturing Naters has a montessori preschool farm themed unit that includes a great sensory tub, links to printables, book ideas, and more.

Miss Kindergarten is enjoying her time Down on the Farm with haystack math, jumbled letter trees, and matching animal activities.

Random Extra...

Our family headed to the farm this week to cross something off our summer fun list.  Check out this amazing berry - that's a lot of delish in one GIANT bite! 

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Teaching with Ticia: beginner's science we all can do

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How many of you are daunted by the idea of teaching science?  I know back when I was in college a good half of my fellow teachers-to-be were terrified of the idea.

But, science only has to be as complicated as you make it.  Here's a simple activity that preschoolers can do.

Supplies: plastic animals or pictures of them, stuff to sort them into.

For ours activity we used farm animals because we were studying the farm.  We dumped them out on the foam board, and then set up our sorting area.

For little guys the more hands on you make this the better.  So, while it works with pictures, it's much better with toys, and let's face it if you have little kids you have a lot of little plastic animals.

I think they multiply while we're not looking.

For our sort we set up a pretend farm.  There was a pasture, a barn, a pond, and a "house," which was really more of a gazebo, but it worked.  Then we went through the different animals in our sets and put them where they went.  As you can see according to my kids there are a lot of animals that go in the pasture.

This can be extended into so many different areas all depending on what you're sorting, and how complicated you want to make it.  My boys were 4 when we did this, so it wasn't anymore complicated than where they thought it should go.  For older kids you could start talking about the actual animal classifications and how they are supposed to be.

Extensions for farm animal sorting:

1.  Go to a grocery store, look at the different food in the store and talk about which animals made the different food.  A further extension is to try different cheeses from the different animals.  When we did this, we were all surprised to find out that we liked goat cheese.

2.  Visit a local farm and see how it works.

3.  A great show to watch: "How'd That Get on My Plate," from Food Network, they've got clips online.  It shows how a potato goes from a potato to a potato chip.  Fascinating to watch.

4.  Nursery Rhymes, the number of nursery rhymes that are about farms is amazing.  I love nursery rhymes and wish I could find more time to incorporate them into our studies.

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Down on the Farm

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Sarah at Fifth Street Academy shared a cute farm book and activities.

Put together a garden farm scene using your felt board and the inspiration from Pink and Green Mama.

Amazing Graze Farm shows a clever scarecrow apron useful for fall baking.

Looking for a printable farm word puzzle?


Pink and Green Mama has also put together a sample of a colorful farm animal felt set.
Put together a Farm Mobile.

Visit the interactive Kid's Farm and check out real animals.

This barnyard in a box is a fun alternative to the traditional diorama.

Take a look at farm blogs from around the world.

Farm Sounds
tune: Wheels on the Bus)
By John Saltsman

The cows in the barn go moo, moo, moo,
Moo, moo, moo -- moo, moo, moo.
The cows in the barn go moo, moo, moo,
All around the farm.

Other verses:
... pigs in the pen go oink, oink, oink
... hens in the coop go cluck, cluck, cluck
... rooster on the fence goes cock-a-doodle-do
... ducks in the pond go quack, quack, quack
... lambs on the hill go baa, baa, baa
... bunnies in the hutch go (silently wiggle nose with finger)

Take Me Out to the Barnyard
(tune: Take Me Out to the Ballgame)
by Judy Hall
Take me out to the barnyard.
Take me out there right now.
Show me the cows, pigs and horses, too.
I hear an oink and a neigh and a moo.
There are chickens laying their eggs.
If they don't lay it's a shame.
Oh, it's one, two, three eggs today,
And I'm glad I came.

These songs, along with other cute poems and rhymes can be found at Pro Teacher.

Check out the other farm activities we have compiled here in the past.

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On the Farm: Baby Animals

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Today Wondertime Wednesday heads to the farm!

Springtime is a natural time to study and visit a farm. After being inside all winter, it's fun to take learning outside and seeing all the baby animals and the first plants of the season are fun and exciting ways to learn about a variety of subjects. This post is a companion piece to all the wonderful gardening activities shared last week so be sure you check those out too.

Thank you to everyone who shared a great idea, don't forget there is still time to send us an activity submission and be entered into our Dr. Sears book giveaway! Come back tomorrow to see the winners and find out about our big plans for the summer!

Michelle and her daughter experimented with negative space painting while learning about farm animals.Thinking of focusing on pigs during your farm stay?
Check out Denise's fun Pig Poetry Chart and activity.
Objective: develop concepts of print; count groups of objects to five.
They also demonstrated the designing of a fun farm scene using stickers.
Joann submitted a link full of resources related to planning a farm animals unit. She has a ton of good ideas so be sure to check them out, we like how they sorted plastic farm animals.
Keri at The Home Teacher put together an on the farm quiet kit and an add on activity. The kit includes lacing cards, memory cards, I Spy game, books, puppets and more. What a fantastic resource.
Thanks to Julie at The Girl who Painted Trees for pointing us toward Can Teach and their collection of Farm poems and songs.
Lovin' the adorable, 3D sheep Jolanthe crafted with her kids.

Denise submitted a great group of down on the farm fun!
Who Was in the Barn? Poem Chart
Objective: developing concepts of print; practice farm animal names and sounds
Feed the Chicks Counting Game
Objective: develop number concepts
Wishy Washy Day
Objective: dramatize familiar stories & have fun!Katie at Katie's Nesting Spot is getting ready for a farm field trip with a variety of activities like animal sounds patterns, habitat sort, and pennies for piggies.

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