Farewell Farm Friends

We wrapped up our farm week by doing a bunch of farm puzzles.  Since Eva has moved on to actual interlocking puzzles we haven't used the wooden ones much so it was fun to dig them out again.  We had fun making animal noises as Eva placed each piece in it's spot.

We also have a floor puzzle of a farm train that fit in perfectly with this week's theme.

I also made a barn for Eva using some red construction paper and a few pictures from our farm visit.

Our last addition to the farm yard is a horse.  We started out by tracing Eva's feet on brown construction paper.

After I cut them out, Eva glued them together with a neck and four legs also cut from the paper.

We added eyes and Eva drew on a nose.  Then the batteries in my camera died so I wasn't able to take pictures of us adding the mane and tail.  They are made from pieces of twine that Eva stuck to a strip of tape.  Here he is hanging in the pasture.

(Eva is a bit tape obsessed these days so that is why there is a piece on his nose.)

Chicks Rule

Today was all about the chickens.  We started off by exploring a new sensory tub.  I replaced the split peas with cracked corn we had left over from a bird feeder project.  I hid some farm animals and the leftover seeds from our sunflower project in the corn.  We talked about how the corn that chickens eat is different from the corn that we eat (aka the "don't eat what's in the sensory tub" speech).

The corn will not be staying in the tub long as it is very dusty but it didn't seem to bother Eva.  She practiced using tongs to pick the seeds out of the corn.

For our craft today we made a chick to go in our farmyard.  I precut the head and body out of yellow construction paper and feet and a beak out of orange.  Eva glued them together while we talked about where the body parts go.

After adding the essential googly eyes, we drizzled white glue on the chick's body and Eva got to cover it with feathers.

I think this is my favorite edition to our farmyard but Eva still loves the "chocolate mud pig" the best.

I also made a new game for Eva to play using pictures of the animals we saw at the farm.  I glued the photos to 4x6 index cards and then covered them with clear contact paper (laminating would also work). There are two cards for each animal and we used them to play a matching game.

I laid them out on the floor and Eva found the animals that were the same.

Other things we could do with the cards include playing an actual memory game with the photos face down, using the pictures to select which animal to sing about next in Old MacDonald's Farm or to play a basic version of Go Fish.  Let me know if you can think of any other things we could do with the cards.

Down on the Farm

We made it to the farm today.  The weather wasn't as nice as promised but we got in a good visit before the rain came.  This was our first time visiting Springdale Farm and I was very impressed!  There were so many animals to see plus they have a tour of their robotic milking machine, as well as a petting zoo (which wasn't open yet), a playground and beautiful gardens.
We got to see this cow getting milked.

We also visited with a few of her buddies.

Eva got to meet this guy up close and loved every second of it!

When we got home we made our own spotted cow.  I drew the outline of a cow on card stock and Eva added the spots using brown paint and a loofa.

When she was dry, I cut her out and she joined the other animals in the farm yard.

This Little Piggy...

Today has been all about pigs.  We started out practicing some small motor skills by putting coins into a piggy bank.  The Easter Bunny brought Eva lots of different coins for her college fund so she had a lot to feed into the piggy.

When we were at the library this morning we discovered they have some awesome literacy packets that include books, movies and fun manipulatives such as felt board pieces, puppets and stuffed animals.  We checked out a pig one and it contained these adorable felt piggies that go along with the "This Little Piggy" poem.  Eva had so much fun playing with the pigs and reciting the poem.

Aren't they cute?  What would we do without libraries?

For a craft, I drew a pig on some tag board for Eva to color with her pink crayons.  (The original plan was to use pink construction paper but alas, our pack didn't have any.)

Then she got to make the pig muddy by finger painting on him with chocolate pudding.

Then, the best part- eating the rest of the "mud"!

I swear, I did give her a spoon but she had to get every last bit.
When the pudding was dry, I cut the pig out and he joined his buddy the sheep in the farmyard.

The weather is supposed to be gorgeous tomorrow so we are planning to go to a real farm.  If we do, I'll be sure to share pictures tomorrow evening.

Our Farm Friends

The theme this week is farm friends!  We will be getting to know cows, pigs, sheep and many other farm animals better.

We made the sheep in the previous post using black construction paper, white paint, packing peanuts and some tag board.  Eva started out by sponge painting with white paint on the black construction paper.

When the paint dried, she had a blast squirting white glue all over the paper.

Next came the packing peanuts.  We had received a package earlier in the week so we had some on hand.  Cotton balls would work too.

It took awhile for all the glue to dry, but once it did I glued the black paper to a sheet of gray card stock and then cut out a head and legs.  Add a face and you have yourself a cute little sheep!

Small Motor Activities
Farm Puzzles- Eva has a few wooden farm puzzles that we will be playing with this week.

Seeds and Tongs- we will be pretending that the tongs are chicken beaks and we'll use them to transfer seeds from one container to another

Five Clean Squeaky Pigs- another fun felt board poem I found at this great site
Five pigs so squeaky clean Cleanest pigs you've ever seen! Wanted to go outside and play Snort!  Snort! One jumped into the mud Landed with a great big THUD! (slap thighs) Then there were four clean squeaky pigs. Oink!  Oink!  

Large Motor Activities
Barnyard Dance- we will be dancing like the animals in one of our favorite Sandra Boynton books

Making Butter- lots of shaking will be happening when we attempt to make our own butter using a baby food jar and some heavy cream

Crafts
Muddy Pig- we'll start with a pink paper pig and use chocolate pudding to finger paint him all messy

Spotted Cow- can you guess what we will use to make spots on our cow?

Hatching Chick- we can help a little chick hatch with this craft that doubles as a toy

Footprint Horse- once we trace Eva's foot we will transform her footprint into a galloping friend

Other Activities
Farm Animal Sort and Count- we will be sorting animals by type and then counting how many there are of each to practice our numbers from 1-6
Farm Books