Five Little Pig Puppets

The girls made these cute little pig finger puppets to go with our Five Little Pigs poem. To make the puppets we cut rectangle strips, folded them in half and glued along the sides. We cut circles for the faces and triangles for the ears. After gluing the pieces together the girls used a pen to draw the faces.

With a Moo Moo Here...

As part of our farm theme we learned about cows. We started by reading The Milk Makers by Gail Gibbons.

We sang the Making Butter Boogie while making our own butter. Download the poem here.

We each took turns shaking the whipping creme in a baby food jar.

When the butter was ready we ate it on bread while I read Click, Clack, Moo to the girls.

Then we read our cow poem chart and Julia illustrated her own copy of the poem. Feel free to download the cow poem and the child's copy of the poem.

Farm Books and Felt Board Stories

During our farm unit, I've devoted one of the shelves in our playroom to farm books. The small tub holds two plastic bags, each with a story book and story pieces to use on the felt board (more information below). The other tub holds a variety of farm books including:

Storybooks:
Little Chick's Breakfast by Mary De Ball Kwitz
"Not Now!" said the Cow by Joanne Oppenheim
Click, Clack, Moo Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin
The New Baby Calf by Edith Newlin Chase
Good Morning Chick by Mirra Ginsburg
Night is Coming W. Nikola-Lisa
Several Mrs. Wishy Washy books by Joy Cowley
Hello, Farm Animals by Eileen Curran

Rhyming Books:
Down on the Farm by Merrily Kutner
Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
I Went Walking by Sue Williams
The Day the Goose Got Loose by Reeve Lindbergh
Old Mac Donald Had a Farm by Siobhan Dodds
On the Farm by David Elliot
Barnyard Banter by Denise Flemming
Big Fat Hen by Keith Baker
Cock-a-doodle-doo Barnyard Hullabaloo by Giles Andreae

Counting Books:
Let's Go Visiting by Sue Williams
Cock-a-doodle-doo A Farmyard Counting Book by Steve Lavis
Ten Red Apples by Par Hutchins
Click, Clack, Splish, Splash by Doreen Cronin

Nonfiction:
Animal Babies on the Farm by Vicky Weber
The Milk Makers by Gail Gibbons
My Horses by Heather Miller
My Pigs by Heather Miller
My Sheep by Heather Miller
My Chickens by Heather Miller
Farm Babies by Russell Freedman
Eye Openers Farm Animals

I would like to add a few farm alphabet books to this tub. Any recommendations?

Hattie and the Fox by Mem Fox is our first felt board story. The pictures are from the Arkansas Department of Human Services and can be downloaded here.

Here is Lauren pulling the fox's nose out of the bushes and saying, "Goodness gracious me! I see a nose in the bushes!" Yeah Lauren!

Mrs. Wishy-Washy is our other felt board story. The pictures can be downloaded here. Both Hattie and the Fox and Mrs. Wishy-Washy are simple and highly repetitive stories that little ones can successfully retell.

Five Little Pigs

Materials:

• Five Little Pigs poem. Print the second page (the numbers) on card stock.


• Pigs printed on card stock


• 12x18 green construction paper


• 9x12 brown construction paper


• lamination film (if you do not laminate, then place a piece of clear packing tape under the velcro)


• Velcro

To make the chart:

• Glue the poem to the top of the 12x18 green construction paper. Cut the brown paper into the shape of a mud puddle and glue to the bottom of the green construction paper.


• Laminate the poem, number cards, and pig pictures. Cut the pieces apart.


• Attach a small strip of velcro above the word 'five' on the poem and to the back of the number cards. Attach five pieces of velcro to the mud puddle and to the back of the pigs.

To use the chart:

• Place the pigs on the puddle.


• Read the poem with your child using your finger or a pointer to track the print.


• After you read "The farmer took one piggy out." your child removes a pig.


• Count the number of pigs left in the puddle. Cover the word 'five' with the word 'four' and read the poem again. Continue until all the pigs are removed.

Sticker Addition

Julia used farm stickers to practice addition. First she cut apart the equation and answer cards. Then she placed the correct number of stickers on each equation card and found the correct answer. Download the addition page here.

Who Was In the Barn

Children practice animal names and sounds with this easy to memorize poem. The changeable pictures and word pieces add extra appeal.





Materials:

• Who Was in the Barn printed on printer paper

• Word cards and animal pictures printed on card stock. The animal pictures are from prekinders.com.

• one piece of 12x18 construction paper

• a small piece of yellow construction paper

• lamination film (if you do not laminate, then place a piece of clear packing tape under the velcro)
• velcro

To make the cart:

• Glue the poem to the top of a 12x18 piece of construction paper. Glue a yellow construction paper haystack to the bottom of the paper.


• Laminate the poem, word cards, and animal pictures. Cut the pieces apart.


• Attach velcro to the end of the last two lines of the poem, on top of the haystack, and to the back of the word cards and animal pictures.

To use the chart:

• Lay out the animal pictures, name cards, and sound cards as shown in the picture above.

• Place an animal on top of the haystack. Attach the animal name and sound cards to the poem.

• Read the poem with your child. Track the print with your finger or a pointer as you read.

• Change the pieces and read the poem again. Continue as long as your child is interested.

Feed the Chicks

Lauren practiced counting 1-3 objects with our latest counting game. This game uses a chick counting board, dot spinner, and popcorn kernels. The counting boards came from Workjobs by Mary Baratta-Lorton but they would be easy to create with clip art.

The child spins the spinner, counts the dots, and places the correct number of corn kernels in a chick's dish. Use a die if your child is practicing counting six objects. Use two dice to practice addition.

Wishy Washy Day

As part of our farm theme the girls and I had a wishy-washy day! We started by reading a few of our favorite Mrs. Wishy-Washy books.

Mrs. Wishy-Washy- The cow, pig, and duck jump, roll, and paddle in the lovely mud until Mrs. Wishy-Washy comes along with her brush and tub. Children love to see the animals get the last word in this fun, predictable book.

Mrs. Wishy-Washy's Farm- When the cow, pig, and duck get fed up with Mrs. Wishy-Washy and her tub they leave the farm and head to the city. They soon learn that there's no place like home!

Mrs. Wishy-Washy Makes a Splash- It's bath time but all the animals hid. Guess who ends up in the tub instead?

Mrs. Wishy-Washy's Splishy-Sploshy- The meanies invade Mrs. Wishy-Washy's shed and play splishy-sploshy with her paint. No mess is too big for Mrs. Wishy-Washy and her trusty scrub brush.

We went outside to enjoy a few activities inspired by the books. The girls stomped and rolled our plastic farm animals in a tub of mud (potting soil and water). Oh, lovely mud!

Along came Mrs. Wishy-Washy! Using a tub of soapy water and child-sized scrub brushes, the girls scrubbed the animals. It was fun to hear them quote the books as they played.

Next the girls scrubbed the outside toys.

Time for some more messy fun! The girls finger painted with brown finger paint. I have tried finger painting with Lauren before but this is the first time she was willing to put her hands in the paint. You can tell by the look on her face that she was not sure what to think. She spread the paint so carefully. Julia on the other hand has no reservations about messy art. She would jump head first into the paint if I let her!

We ended our wishy washy day by eating mud (chocolate pudding with crushed Oreos) and rereading our wishy-washy books. We had so much fun that we're already planning our next book themed day. Check back soon to read about our Fancy Nancy day!