Farm Animal theme ideas for preschool or kindergarten?

Question

I have a class of 27 kindergarteners and I'd love some ideas for a unit on farm animals (crafts, songs, games, outdoor activities, etc.). Thanks!

Answer 1

Old MacDonald had a farm, each child is an animal and that child makes the animal noise  (or three children one animal)

Answer 2

make masks and costumes of farm animals...we cooked breakfast and discussed how the farm animals give us food..eggs, bacon milk etc( some may see this as cruel to teach kids this age about  killing pigs for bacon but we live in a farming area and most kids live on farms and it was no big deal to them so chose this wisely) we used an elctric hot plate and cooked it in the room the kids loved it...we also visited a farm and a child's parent brought some horses to school for the kids to ride....

Answer 3

A field trip to a farm would be fantastic.  You can also find a lot of activities at:

http://www.dltk-kids.com/searchresults.h...

Answer 4

1. Sing Old McDonald.  Have the kids pick what animal and noise.

2. Make different buildings (barn, chicken coup, stable, etc) and put them arounds the room.  I had my students draw, but they were 6th grade, so you may need to just copy from a book, pictures of animals.  Another option is to have magazines and have the kids cut the pictures out.  If you are copying, have the kids color and cut out the pictures (yea fine motor skills!) and go around the room putting the animals where they belong.  

3. If your children are reading or beginning to read, have them match the words with the pictures.

4. Can you take them on a field trip to a farm?

5. Play "Let's Be"--call out "let's be dogs" and everyone has to act like a dog.  The children can call out and change it at any time, so someone can then yell out "Let's be sheep" or whatever.  Limit it to just animals you find on the farm (although the real game--a drama improv one--let's you be anything from an animal to a piece of furniture to anything).

6. Read Chicken Little.  Act it out.

7. Watch parts of "Barnyard"and teach the kids that bulls do not have udders.  

Hope this helps!  Good luck.

Answer 5

I know read a book like these:Cow & Calf (Farm Animals),

Farm Animals

by: Spizzirri

Grumpy Goat (Usborne Farmyard Tales)

by: Amery, Heather

then have a sheet of paper and tell them to draw what the just read about or find fram animal magazines and have tem cut them out or have a play about fram animals

Answer 6

Take them to a farm or something and have a day for them to ride horses and play with all the farm animals. Of course you would need to check with the person who owns the farm and see if it is ok to take your schoolers there. For games have them play hide and seek in a haystack (a small one) if they are not allergic to hay. Songs you guys could make a little band and sing like "Old McDonald" or other farm songs.Crafts you can make little farm people out of popsicle sticks and make the farm out of just different things you find such as paper towel role, toilet paper role, cardboard boxes, ect. and play farm. Or you can have the kids be characters of a farm.

Answer 7

Here are some sites to try:

http://www.123child.com/UBB/showthread.p...

http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/presch...

http://childfun.com/modules.php?name=New...

http://www.everythingpreschool.com/theme...

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valle...

Answer 8

let them pretend to be farmers - use old egg cartons and neutral colored easter eggs and let the kids collect the eggs, set up a vegetable stand with real vegetables for the kids to "sell", use a sensory table with seeds, dirt and veggies, let them eat animal crackers for snacks, read books about farms, sing Old McDonald, play duck, duck, goose, make a barn out of an old refrigerator box, play guess the animal by making animal sounds

Have fun!

Answer 9

That would be easy for me, try Oh McDaonald had a farm................and use the animals in that song. great for little kids.You can even have pictures of different animals or the kids pets and add them to the song. surely they can come up with twenty seven different animals, you would be suprised what kids can come up with. Hope this helps

Answer 10

Indoor Activity:

Read to them books about a particular animal. At the end have them make a craft of that animal. Example: Read a book on bunnies then have them make a bunny using craft paper, eyes etc.

Outdoor:

Many zoos have a special section for farm animals. You can take the kids for a zoo visit.