Farm Activity Plans

Download the farm week planning guide for simple, hands-on play and learn ideas to use at home or in your preschool classroom! There are lots of ideas to keep little learners moving and learning.

DAY 1

Farm Animal Writing: Find small plastic toy farm animals that can be easily cleaned with soap and water (or in the dishwasher). Squirt washable paint on to a paper plate and spread it around. Using large paper would be fun for this activity – maybe a cut and flattened paper grocery bag or the back of wrapping paper or posterboard. Dip and wiggle the plastic toy farm animal’s feet in the paint. Make farm animal tracks on the paper with the painted feet to form letters, names, or simple words. Consider pre-writing the letters on the paper for younger preschoolers to trace while making farm animal tracks!

Cow Claps: Print the cow page or create your own. Cut the cow circles out. Write numbers on each cow. Use numbers 1-5 for younger preschoolers and 1-10, 5-10, 10-20, etc. for older preschoolers depending on current learning levels. Hang the cows around the room. Your preschoolers job is to move from cow to cow. Each time a new cow is found, identify the number, and clap your hands that many times. To change up the game, have your preschooler look for a certain number, and then clap that many times! You can also give your preschooler a number, but instead of finding that number, find the number that comes next.

DAY 2

Farm Magnet Match: Print the farm animal page or create your own. Cut the cards out. On each farm animal card write a letter or word. Spread the cards out on the table. Add all of the magnets to a bowel. Have your preschooler choose one magnet at a time and identify it. Then find the matching farm animal card with that same letter. Place the magnet at that card and play again. If using words on the cards, find all of the magnet letters in the word and spell the word next to the card.

Build a Barn: On a piece of paper, draw a farm animal in the middle. Gather popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, or even play dough to use as the barn for the animal to sleep in. On small pieces of paper, write one number on each piece. Make a pile of the numbers. Choose a number and add that many pretend wooden planks as the side of the barn (popsicle sticks) to add to the paper with the farm animal. Count as each popsicle stick is set down across the paper all the way up to the number that was picked. Choose another number and play again. You can also use multiple pieces of paper to draw farm animals on to make your own pretend farm!

DAY 3

Chicken Letters: Print the play dough mat or create your own. Instead of using corn pieces or beads or pom poms to feed the chickens, feed them letters of the alphabet! Roll out play dough into “snakes” to then form the play dough into letters. Start with the letters in your name or easy to form letters. Use letter cards if needed to help with formation.

Horse Gallop: Create a path on the floor with tape or draw a path with chalk outside. Horses gallop in a rhythm as they move from place to place. Practice galloping while pretending to be a horse. Act like a horse all the way down the taped or drawn lines. Keep going all the way down the path while paying attention to keeping your feet on the lines while you gallop!

DAY 4

Collect the Carrots: Cut a bunch of orange paper triangles as carrots out of paper. Place them all over the house or room. The goal of the activity is to move like a farm animal (change it up as you play!) all over the room, while collecting as many carrots as possible. Use a timer to give your preschooler a goal to work from. Count the carrots gathered. Spread them back out and see if even more carrots can be collected within the time limit. Another way to play would be to give your preschooler a certain number of carrots to collect OR to give a simple addition sentence to solve with a certain number of carrots.

Farm Artist: On oversized easel paper, paint your favorite farm animal! Start with the outline of the farm animal – head, body, legs, eyes, tail, mouth/snout, etc. Use the colors of the animals and try to make it as realistic as possible. Different sized paintbrushes may help with adding details!

DAY 5

Clean the Muddy Pigs: Gather a few plastic pig toys (or any farm animals), a shallow plastic bin, potting soil or dirt, and water. Cover the bottom of the bin with dirt and mix water into it to make mud. Add the plastic pig toys to the bin. Play with the pigs in the mud for a fun, messy sensory set-up! When finished, take the plastic pigs to a bin of soapy water and lean them up. Use toothbrushes, small scrubby brushes, etc. to clean the muddy pigs! Bring them back to the mud to play again! See details HERE.

Jump the Fence: Strengthen gross motor muscles and coordination while jumping a pretend fence that keeps the farm animals in! Use a jumprope (or something similar) and place it across the floor. Have your preschooler jump over the jumprope (pretend fence) a few times while it is on the ground. Run up to the jumprope and jump, stand still and jump, stand backwards and jump, etc. As your preschooler is more comfortable, tie the end of the jumprope to a chair or table leg and hold on to the other side. Raise the jumprope to a higher level for your preschooler to jump over. For an added challenge (if your preschooler is ready!), try wiggling the jumprope up and down while your preschooler jumps. Do this slowly so that your preschooler can time it and does not trip.

EXTRAS:

Duck Walk & Grab: Spread rolled socks, stuffed animals, or other small items out around the floor or yard. Walking like a duck (squatted down, knees bent, arms flapping, waddle position) move around collecting the items as you go. There can be a basket or bucket in the middle of the room to duck walk over and drop the items in as they are collected. Duck walking is tough work, so don’t spread the items out too far at the beginning to keep this activity fun and not frustrating.

LEGO Farm: Gather LEGO building bricks or blocks. Show or your preschoolers pictures of farm animals online. Using the building bricks or blocks, have your preschooler build the best version of a farm animal. Focus on the body parts of the animal that are easy to build. Encourage your preschooler’s creativity!

Download the farm theme editable planning sheet. Add learning ideas from the list below in this column or from the apple week activities!