Sounds of the Farm- Flannel board story

The Dog that Couldn't Bark- Flannel board story

The Farmer in the Dell-Ready to Make Fingerpuppets to accompany the song, applied on a magnetic board.

The Big Big Turnip- Flannel board story

Group Time/Circle

1. Mrs. Wishy Washy- Using the big book favorite of Mrs. Wishy Washy, create animal story props to accompany this story. Make a mud puddle from brown bulletin board paper, a headband of each farm animal in story, and a head kerchief with a rag for Mrs. Wishy Washy. To make headbands, draw or color each farm animal picture and glue onto sentence strip. Laminate all items. Share the story several times with the students, then allow the children to recreate the story by letting each animal "roll" into the mud puddle, Mrs. Wishy Washy scrub them, etc;

2. Old MacDonald had a Farm- After children are familiar with the song, try introducing farm animals or crops. In front of the circle, bring out a plastic animal or vegetable. Ask the children what this is, then sing the song, substituting in the name of the animal/crop. Give the animal/crop to a child. Continue until each child is holding an animal/crop. Encourage each child to tell you the name and then place back in the bin.

3. The Animals On the Farm- Use beanie babies, plastic animals, or laminated pictures. Give each child an animal (one at a time, not all at once). The encourage the child to tell you what the animal is and make the animal's sound. Then sing the song as follows:

The cow on the farm goes moo moo moo,

moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo,

The cow on the farm goes moo, moo, moo,

All the whole day!

(Continue along, substituting different animals).

Centers

Computers

Mother Goose's Farm 4 Learning by Mattel

Language/Music/Dramatic Play

Dramatic Play-

Puppets-Place Farm animal puppets, handmade animal hats, and other props in the langage area; accompany specific props/puppets with matching books. Ex. The pig that went oink, you may choose to place a plastic pig snout that the child can wear. You may also choose to place coordinating felt pieces with certain farm animal stories that will tie in thematic language.

Dress Up-Place flannel shirts, overalls, hoe, straw hat, animal costumes, boots, etc; in the center for the children to dress up with. You may choose to incorporate pictures that show the children examples of the result of dressing like a farmer, like a cow, etc;

Re-enactment-Map off an area, if you would like, for a pretend class farm. This may be inside or outside, depending on the need and availability. Recreate a garden area, complete with garden tools, seed packets with markers, and seeds to plant.

Music/Language-

1. Place farm books with accompanying tapes for children to listen to a story in the music center, and specific farm titles on the bookcase.

2. Make up a farm tape with the coordinating sounds of each animal, and attach a switch to the tape player, so that the child may press the switch to hear the animal's sound, each time he/she flips the page to a new animal.

3. Create several assistive communication displays to accompany Thematic Vocabulary and Farm Books or stories. Children who need this type of communication, will enjoy being able to hear Thematic words with sounds by the touch of a button. They will also enjoy "reading" the story, by matching the book's page to the aac picture and letting the aac talk for the child. This encourages independence, language modelization, and speech to print matching.

Exploration/Sensory

Exploration-

1. Place chocolate pudding "mud" in a messy tray and let children use their fingers to write or draw with. You may choose to hide plastic pigs in a mound of pudding.

2. Place tinted shaving cream: white with black dots for cows, pink for pigs, etc; hide plastic farm animals or farm related items for the children to find.

3. Let children plant vegetable seeds or grass seed in milk cartons.

4. Let children use clean, stripped corn cobs to roll in paint.

Sensory-

1. Create a cow to milk in the water table by stringing a clothesline from one side of the table to the other. Using latex gloves, fill the gloves with water, and prick each "nipple" (finger) with a pin. This will create a hole in which the "milk" can be released into the table. Children will enjoy using their fine motor skills to squeeze the utters and will enjoy the sensation of the squirting water. Let's milk!!

2. Place a farm related sensory filler such as: easter grass, corn kernels, oats, cotton balls, plastic eggs, etc; Then hide farm related items for the children to find: farm animals, farm tools, farm products, etc;

3. For oral stimulation and mouth closure, let the children re-enact the Three Little Pigs. Provide a tray with pink cotton balls, wolf straws, and laminated paper houses (brick, stick, and hay). Place the pink pig cotton balls onto each house. Encourage the child to take the straw with a small picture of the wolf on it, and blow the pigs out of their house.

Fine Motor

Blocks-

1. Encourage children to build the 3 Little Pigs houses. Challenge them to create houses sturdy enough to withstand the wolf's huff and puff. Then take turns letting each child huff and puff and blow their block houses down, of course, knocking them down is always an option!

2. Place a barn with animals into the block center and encourage the children to create a place for each animal in the barnyard, while naming the animals and making the sounds and appropriate actions. Model how a horse might run, a pig might roll around, a chicken might peck, a farmer might ride on the tractor, etc;

Manipulatives-

1. Use farm shaped cutouts to lace, ex. cow, pig, chicken, etc;

2. Let the children create cow necklaces by slicing black licorice into sections. Provide licorice sections and cheerios to string.

3. Make different farm animals from colored pom poms, felt pieces and wiggly eyes; place into a container. Provide matching animal cards for the children to match them to. Encourage children to use tongs to transfer the pom pom animal from the container onto the matching card/strip.

4. Provide farm related puzzles for the children to use, make homemade puzzles if necessary by using a colored picture onto posterboard. Always add small pegs or pencil pieces glue onto the puzzle, for children with limited motor control.

5. Provide farm animal rubber stamps for the children to stamp with. You can draw the animal's homes onto the page and encourage the children to stamp the animal in it's home, if desired. Ex. pig pen/pig, fenced in pasture/cows, barn/horse, chicken coop/chickens, fencepost/rooster, pond/ducks, etc;

Art/Cooking

Art Activities-

Cotton Ball sheep- Draw or photocopy a blackline sheep pattern onto grey or black paper, cut out. Then let the children glue on soft white cottonballs.

Muddy Pigs-Draw a pig pattern onto pink paper and cut out. Allow the children to fingerpaint with chocolate pudding or brown paint.

Paper Plate Cows-Sponge paint black spots onto the paper plate. Add construction paper ears, nose, and mouth, and eyes ( or wiggly eyes). Model the language for the child to create this cow face. This reinforces spoken language, body parts, oral comprehension, and thematic vocabulary.

Feathered Duck- Easel paint a duck shape yellow and glue on yellow or white feathers. Ask the child the name of the duck and any other desired information, and dictate word for word onto the paper.

Farm Prints-Use farm shaped sponges to create a farm scene, have the child try to tell you what each sponge is and where it should go in the farm picture. Use real grass for tactile stimulation and creativity, if desired.

Handprint Chickens- A sensory must! Let the child dip their hand into brown or white paint and press the handprint onto colored paper. Add details (eyes, comb, feet) with q-tips or fingertips.

Bulletin Boards 

Farm Board
-Large farm bulletin board with all the farm animals included. Click on picture to get more detail on this board.

Cooking Activities-

Pigs in a blanket- Need: hot dogs, crescent rolls/bicuits. Let each child quarter or half a hot dog (depending on chosen bread) with a plastic knife. Encourage child to roll the hot dog into a roll or biscuit and place onto their cooking sheet. Bake according to canned bread directions.

Haystack Cookies- Need: graham crackers, individual chocolate squares, marshmallows, chow mein noodles. Let each child place a chocolate square, marshmallow, and chow mein noodles onto a graham cracker. Microwave for 16 seconds. Yum!!

Pear Mouse- Need: Pear half, raisins, cherries, red string licorice. Let each child place a pear onto a small plate. Put on raisins for eyes, cherry for nose, and licorice for tail.

Pink pig sickles- Need: 2 cups plain yogurt, 12 oz. unsweetened frozen cranberry-apple juice concentrate, 2 tsp. vanilla. Let child place all items in a blender, encourage child to press blender button, or switch if necessary, and blend. Using a pouring cup, pour mixture into cups and add popsickle sticks for handles. Freeze until set!

Cow Cookies- Need: Prepared cookie dough and chocolate chips. Buy the prepared cookie dough, then let children add required ingredients (eggs, milk, etc;) Then let each child roll their dough into a ball, pound to flatten, and press in cow spots. Cook according to package directions.

Chicken muffins- Use a muffin mix and prepare according to directions; pour into round muffin tins. When cool, allow each child to place raisin eyes on for the chicken, fruit tape comb, and candy corn beak.

Little Red Hen's Bread- Find an easy to make bread that you feel comfortable with. Recreate this story by asking who will help me make this bread? Who will help me mix these ingredients? Who will help me bake it? Etc;