Old MacDonald had a farm...

E-I-E-I-O!

Today we are talking about farm animals!

We started off with our bigger book Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown. This is wonderful story about the animals on the farm when the children are away.

Next up was our flannel board story, Old MacDonald Had a Farm. I've seen alot of incarnations of the cardboard barn to hide the animals in before you bust them out but this is my version!
We ended our storytime with the short, Barnyard Banter by Denise Fleming. This involves lots of animal noises and a missing duck!


Create A Farm Story Time Craft


Our craft today is Create a Farm. I printed out clipart barns, cows, ducks, pigs, etc and cut them out. I glued a half a sheet of blue paper to green cardstock to give the effect of the sky and a hilly farm scene. The kids can glue them on. This allows the parents the chance to discusss each animal, what sound they make, and why they put them where they did.

My favorite part of the whole story time was when the mom asked the little girl "What do pigs give us?" and she replied, "BACON!" I gigglesnorted for a good while on that one!

Old MacDonald Flannel

For my recent Farm Animals unit I really wanted to do Old MacDonald Had a Farm. It's a classic and easy for the parents to assist me with. Plus, the kiddos really love making animal noises!

For my version I made it into a flannel board using clipart from the web. You can pick any animal you want to include for this which makes it very versatile. I added a little something interesting though. I painted a cardboard magazine holder (which we have TONS of) red and white like a barn. I housed the animals in there and before each new verse I made a big show of pulling out a new mystery animal.


The Barn (And the Sneaky Giraffe!)



The Animals