We are delighted to welcome Jackie who teaches preschool children in Pennsylvania. She is sharing with us the fun her children have been having with this topic:
I am Jackie, I teach in a Head Start Preschool classroom in Northeast Pennsylvania.
There are 17 children in both the AM and PM sessions. The children in my classroom have been learning about farms this month.
When I began planning our farm experience, I wanted to give the children some hands-on experiences within our classroom. Many children in our program have seen farms and know what they are, but only a few have actually been to a farm, so I wanted to bring the farm to them.
One of the activities that I set up for them was a feed corn bin. I used feed corn as the base of the bin and added farm animals and some farmers. Two milk containers were painted red and doors were cut in them to make barns for the animals. An empty orange juice container was turned into a silo that children can fill from the top and try to catch the corn in small containers as it pours out the bottom. Measuring spoons were added so that the children could compare quantities. Fences were made out of tongue depressors and placed on top of artificial grass samples to make pastures.
One of the activities that I set up for them was a feed corn bin. I used feed corn as the base of the bin and added farm animals and some farmers. Two milk containers were painted red and doors were cut in them to make barns for the animals. An empty orange juice container was turned into a silo that children can fill from the top and try to catch the corn in small containers as it pours out the bottom. Measuring spoons were added so that the children could compare quantities. Fences were made out of tongue depressors and placed on top of artificial grass samples to make pastures.
The children love this activity. They enjoy catching feed out of the silo to feed the animals. They make up conversations between the farmers and also have the farmers talk to the animals. Some of the older children have been counting how many corn kernels fit in the various size measuring spoons and how many scoops it takes with each spoon to fill up the feed buckets. This activity provided a lot of social, language, fine motor and math skill practice.
Another activity that we did was milking a cow. We named her Moo-reen. She is made from a styrofoam cooler on wooden legs, covered with an old cow costume. Her utters are made from a heavy duty, latex-free pink rubber glove, stretched over a take-out soup container. The container is filled with water and two pin holes were poked in each finger. The thumb was pushed back in. Milking Moo-reen requires some practice, but the children seem to enjoy it! It is their favorite thing to show their parents when they come in to visit.
Another activity that we did was milking a cow. We named her Moo-reen. She is made from a styrofoam cooler on wooden legs, covered with an old cow costume. Her utters are made from a heavy duty, latex-free pink rubber glove, stretched over a take-out soup container. The container is filled with water and two pin holes were poked in each finger. The thumb was pushed back in. Milking Moo-reen requires some practice, but the children seem to enjoy it! It is their favorite thing to show their parents when they come in to visit.
We also discussed sheering sheep to get wool. I covered a box in Velcro to hold on his fuzzy covering. The kids have been using plastic scissors to sheer of his “wool”. The children have sheered the sheep many times and love to repeat the process over and over again. This activity requires a little more teacher maintenance, because sometimes we have to pick the fuzz out of the Velcro so that it will stick back on again. Through these, and many other activities, the children have been able to get a feel for life on a farm. They have been engaged and excited about these activities for an entire month!
Looks like there has been lots of fun hands on learning going on in your Farm Topic Jackie. Thank you for joining us at Learning and Exploring Through Play. If you have an idea you would like to share on our blog you can find out more HERE.
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