LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES


BAA-BAA BLACK SHEEP
Use language items made of wool. Items could include wool yarn, sweaters, socks or mittens.

BUZZ WENT THE BEE
Cut a bee out of construction paper. Give a child the bee and instruct them to put the bee "on the table," "next to the door," "under the easel," etc.

THE FARM
Tell a story about a farm using plastic farm animals as a prop.

BABY ANIMALS
Make a set of animal cards. One half of the set will have animal mothers, the other half of the set will be baby animals. Do these three activities:

• Match the babies with the mothers
• Let the children make the animal sounds, make a tape recording of the animal sounds
• Let the children match the card with the sound.

FLANNEL BOARD FARM
Make a barn shape out of felt. Put up on a flannel board. Let children make up stories and put felt animal shapes on and around the barn on the flannel board.



BARNYARD ART
Reinforce the children's vocabulary and listening skills by incorporating art projects into your farm theme.


WOOLY LAMB
Give each child a large lamb shape cut out of white construction paper. Set out cotton balls and containers of glue. Let child dip the cotton balls into the glue and place the balls on the lamb shape to make a wooly lamb. Talk about what sound a lamb makes, what is the mother of a lamb, what does a lamb eat and where do they live.

BARNYARD MURAL
Draw a mural of a barn and fence on a large, long piece of paper. Attach to a wall. Let the children cut out, or draw farm animals on the paper around the barnyard. Encourage them to tell you about the animal and write their words on the mural along with their name.

DUCKY
Cut out duck shapes. Provide yellow feathers to glue on the shapes. Talk about what a duck says, eats, etc.

CHOOSE AN ANIMAL
Provide a variety of farm animal shapes copied from a pattern book. Let the child choose their favorite animal. Let the child color the animal with crayons or paint. At Circle Time, have the children bring their animals to the circle. Sing "Old McDonald." As you get to each child's animal, that child may stand up and show the animal.

BEE
Cut out 2 large ovals to represent a bee. Punch holes around the oval about 1 inch apart. The children sew with yarn and large plastic needles the ovals together. They can color black and yellow stripes on their bees. Use the bees while saying the bee fingerplay included in this toolkit.



ADDITIONAL BARNYARD CLASSROOM CENTER IDEAS


DRAMATIC PLAY
Paint an appliance box red or turn your indoor climbing structure into a barn. Play barnyard with toy farm animals. Encourage talk about the animals and what happens on a farm.

SNACK TABLE
Lamb food: apple slices and alfalfa sprouts
Bee food: honey

MOVEMENT
Tape flowers made out of construction paper all over the floor. Make sure there is one for each child. Have children pretend to be bees. Play music and have children "buzz" around the room. When the music stops, they land on a flower.

SAND AND WATER TABLE
Float rubber ducks in your water table.
Put small plastic farm animals in the sand table.

Updated 01/27/2004