Today was a hodgepodge of farm activities that didn't really fit with a particular theme. We sang farm songs, played with farm toys and games, and read some more farm books. Read on below for details!
Farm Songs
There are so many farm songs out there! We sang a lot of them at various points this week, but today I made a special effort to break out the musical instruments and farm animal puppets for a jam session. We sang:
- B-I-N-G-O (we used percussion instruments to mark the missing letters as we sang)
- Old McDonald (with farm animal puppets)
- The Farmer in the Dell
- Down on Grandpa's farm (with farm animal puppets)
We also listened to two recorded songs from the Laurie Berkner Band. Admittedly, these are really corny, traditional "kids" songs. T loves all kinds of music, but he has a special place in his dancing shoes for the Laurie Berkner Band - these songs were no exception. I suspect I'll be linking more of her songs for a variety of themes because they really are fun.
- "Pig on Her Head" - a silly song to get kids laughing that could be adapted to include anyone's names and an animals you prefer
- "I Know a Chicken" - a super fun song that uses egg shakers (or some other shaker) and uses the concept of fast vs. slow
Farm Toys and Games
I try to avoid posting about activities that require a really specific object because I don't think that doing exciting new things with your kids should mean going out and spending money on new toys. But we do have a couple of farm related toys and games that we broke out today.
One is a fun little farm animal matching game. It's called Farm Families and isn't really available anymore (I found it for $60 on Amazon, but it's totally not worth $60!):
One is a fun little farm animal matching game. It's called Farm Families and isn't really available anymore (I found it for $60 on Amazon, but it's totally not worth $60!):
My 16 month old definitely does not understand the concept of finding the matches, but we played it with some older kids and he had fun choosing animals and haystacks and putting them on the platform to hear the sounds. We used it as a chance to talk about the colors of the animals and repeat the sounds they were making. If you don't have a game like this, Sing Dance Play Learn has a neat DIY farm animal sound game. I don't think it would be appropriate for a toddler (part of the appeal of the game we have is touching the animals and generating the sounds), but could be a great alternative for older kids.
We also played with some farm animal puzzles. T is starting to get good at single inset puzzles, and we have two farm versions of those from Melissa and Doug. One has knobs (shown below) and the other is "touch and feel" (not pictured).
We also played with some farm animal puzzles. T is starting to get good at single inset puzzles, and we have two farm versions of those from Melissa and Doug. One has knobs (shown below) and the other is "touch and feel" (not pictured).
More Farm Books
We have lots of books about farms and farm animals, the slideshow shows the ones we read today.
Paper Plate Cow
Inspired by reading No Moon, No Milk, we created some cows by sponge painting black spots onto a white paper plate. We used construction paper to add some details.
To be honest, this ended up not being as easy of a craft for little ones as I thought it would be. I thought the use of sponges would make it easy for a toddler, but he just wanted to feel the sponge (which was covered in paint) instead of using it like a stamp, which meant he ended up with paint all over his hands and in his hair and very little on the cow without significant assistance.