1) Field Trip

If you're lucky enough to have a vehicle to fit
all your daycare children, take a field trip to a local farm!!
If you ask around, you'd be surprised how many
different animals some farms have. Pack a picnic lunch and
make a whole morning of it!!

2) Bulletin Board

Draw a large barn on background paper. Children can either
color pre-printed farm animals, or draw their own.
Add to the BB. Then add fences, trees, windmill,
weathervane, etc....

3) Poems and Fingerplays

Hickety Pickety My Black Hen

Little Bo Peep

Baa, Baa Black Sheep

Five Little Ducks Went Out to Play

I Know an Old Lady...... (I made a great flannelboard story
to this song - the kids love it!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?? (This is also an easy poem to
make a flannelboard story to.)

4) Read the story "The Little Red Hen"
Then make your own bread dough. I found
individual tins to make small loaves - then they each have
their own loaf. Also they learn about working together.

5) **Suggested Reading:
Big Red Barn by M. Wise Brown
Cock-a-doodle-doo! Barnyard Hullabaloo by Giles Andreae
Old MacDonald by. A. Schwartz
Ah-Choo! by Margery Cuyler
Pigs in the Mud in the Middle of the Rud by L. Plourde
I Went Walking by Sue Williams
Barn Cat by C.P. Saul
Animals on the Farm by Rojandovsky
Come to the Farm by Tensen
1001 Things To Spot on the Farm by G. Doherty
And the Cow Said Moo by M. Phillips
Animals on the Farm by S. Morgan
Arthur on the Farm by M. Brown


6) Scarecrows
On a large piece of tagboard or heavy paper, glue
a shirt and pants made out of left over scrap fabric.
Leave openings in the arm and leg holes so you
can glue pieces of straw sticking out. The children can
then draw a head. Lastly, cut out a hat from
fabric and also glue pieces of straw coming out of
the hat for hair.
Read: Scarecrow by Cynthia Rylant

7) Farmer in the Dell
Gather children in a large circle holding hands.
One child is the Farmer and should wear a farmer
or cowboy hat. Sing "The Farmer in the Dell" and
choose a wife, child, nurse, dog, cat, rat, cheese,
etc. when the song says so. You can add or
delete characters depending on the number of kids you have.
Then the last person is the cheese and he/she becomes
the Farmer the next round.

8) Milk the Cow!
From Jan - thanks!
My favorite and the kids favorite thing to
do with our farm unit is to milk the cow. Using a saw
horse or big book easel, I attach an enlarged
picture (side view) of a cow. I attach a filled surgical glove
with tiny holes. Add a step stool and bucket
and you have the milking center! A cow bell around
the neck adds a special touch.

9) Homemade Ice Cream
From the WeeOnes email list
Needed: 2 Tbs. sugar
1 cup milk or half-and-half
1/2 tsp. vanilla
6 Tbs. rock salt
1 pint-sizedplastic zip bag
1 gallon-sized plastic zip bag

DIRECTIONS:
1.FILL the gallon-sized plastic zip bag half
full with ice. Add rock salt and seal.
2.POUR sugar, milk/half-and-half, and
vanilla into the pint-sized plastic
zip bag and seal.
3.PLACE the pint-sized zip bag into the gallon-sized
zip bag and seal.
4.SHAKE the bag for 5-7 minutes.
5.OPEN the small zip bag and enjoy!

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