Farm theme is so much fun!! I love using it in the spring when we can grow plants and talk about all the animals and plants that grow on a farm. Here are a few activities I love using in my preschool classroom!
CARPET TIME ACTIVITIES
These activities are great for whole group settings any time throughout the day! I use some of them more than once, and I move several of them into my centers after we have used them so that students can continue to explore these games and songs!
ANCHOR CHART
I use a few anchor charts throughout every unit. These give us time to discuss the concepts and vocabulary associated with a unit and provide so many rich activities for talking about letters, conventions of print, and words. I introduce this unit by asking students what they might see on a farm and recording their ideas.
A few of the farm books we read like Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell include characters doing "chores." We make this concept more concrete by discussing the chores students do at their homes and recording them on a chart.
FARM LETTER HUNT
This is one of my favorite pocket chart games!! I just love the look of these sweet farm photos! We play this game as a follow up activity for the story Who Took the Farmer's Hat by Joan L. Nodset. In this game, we are looking to see what animals took the farmer's things. My students LOVE pocket chart search games like this one!!
FIVE LITTLE EGGS SONG
These cute little chicks are the perfect way to practice identifying shapes and counting with your class!! I set these cards out in the middle of the carpet as we sing to the tune of Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush
5 little eggs sat quiet and still, quiet and still, quiet and still,
NAME heard peck peck peck until…
Out hatched a SHAPE chick!
The student you named to will take the shape you named. Continue singing until all the chicks are gone! I encourage students to hold up the correct number of fingers to show how many eggs are left.
Butter in a Jar Recipe
My class thinks cooking is absolute magic! They are delighted every time simple ingredients are transformed into something new. This butter recipe is even more impressive because cream changes into butter before their eyes simply by shaking a jar. Reading recipes and following them provide so many opportunities for learning as we count, learn new vocabulary words, and work through each step together!
COUNTING CIRCLE GAME
Learning to count and to identify numbers takes SO MUCH PRACTICE! This game helps us practice both skills in a fun and playful way! The teacher holds up a number card. The class counts to that number while passing a basket around the carpet. The student who says the number on the card will take an animal picture card from the basket. The process repeats with a new number.
PHONEMIC AWARENESS RIDDLES
This game includes two styles of cards. The first set ask students to blend the onset and rhyme in farm words to reveal the mystery animal. The second set ask students to identify a farm animal that rhymes with a given word. My students love that these cards open to reveal the correct animal. I usually make these riddle games a Teacher vs Students game. I give them a point each time they get an answer right, and I get a point each time I trick them. They LOVE beating me!!
LITTLE RED HEN RETELLING
A classic story I love to include in my farm unit is The Little Red Hen. After reading the story a few times, I have my students help to retell it using these popsicle stick puppets. This activity helps build their comprehension and vocabulary, and they love becoming part of the story! This is also a favorite center time activity!
PREDICTABLE CHART
An activity I use to help my students begin to build literacy concepts and specifically the concept of words is predictable charts like this one. I model reading the story touching the dot under each word and give students the opportunity to point as well. After we have done the activity a few times, I use some of the extra animal cards to change the characters in the story to add some variation.
FARM GRAPHS
I usually build a few graphs with my class each month. For the first graph, I give each student a farm animal card and call on them to attach their animal to the correct column of the graph showing if the animal has 2 or 4 legs. This graph explores counting but also lends itself to scientific discussions about the types of animals that have 2 legs.
The second graph invites students to show what farm animal is their favorite. They each add their vote to the graph, and we discuss the data as we are building it and after we complete the graph!
You can get all these carpet time activities for a super discounted price here!
CENTER ACTIVITIES
These activities are great for centers, small group, and table time work!
FARM GRAPH
When my students have had some good practice with graphs in a whole group setting, I introduce these graph building activities. I set out these farm animal cards on each table. The table group sorts out the animal cards then colors in or uses bingo daubers or stickers on their graphs to show how many of each animal they have. This gives them great counting practice and helps them get hands on practice with building graphs!
FARM LETTER HUNT
I use these letter hunt games in a few ways, but one of my favorites is to make mini sensory trays (copy paper box lids) for each table group. Students find the cards in the sensory tray and mark off each card they find before time is up. I have a 3 Little Pigs version of this activity too!
FARM FAMILIES SCIENCE CENTER
These fun farm science activities help students explore the differences and similarities between animals and their young. The activities focus on developing visual discrimination, comparing and contrasting, and using a balance scale.
SENSORY TABLES
These are two of my favorite farm sensory tables! The top one has farm toys, tractors, barn blocks, and dry corn for the filler. The second one has soil, planting tools, and flowers!
I'd love to hear about your favorite farm activities!! Let me know what works in your classroom!
-Brandi
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