I teach my farm unit in the fall, right after our county fair. This is the perfect time to turn our dramatic play area into a farm so my students can experience what life on a farm might be like. They can pretend to do various farm chores like shaving a sheep, milking a cow, collecting chicken eggs, driving a tractor and picking vegetables from the garden.
To set the scene I hung up the Barnyard Backdrop to make it look like we are really in the farm yard. I then set up all the different animal stations. We have a sheep shearing station, a cow milking station, a tractor driving station, a chicken coop, and a garden.
The first area is the sheep shearing station. This was a hit with my kids! It also was a hit with me, because it forces them to use their pincer motions and work their fine motor skills. I took a white bucket and added velcro dots to one side as well as on top. On the top I took the hat from the Kid's Slip on Lamb Costume, and put the opposite velcro dot on the inside of it, so the hat would stay in place towards the front of the bucket. On the side of the bucket I added individual velcro dots so kids could stick White Yarn Pom-Poms to the sheep. Students couldn't just throw the White Yarn Pom-Poms at the bucket, they had to stick them on one at a time. This action helps them with their fine motor skills. Next, my students will "shear" the sheep by putting the White Yarn Pom-Poms back into the Large Galvanized Bucket.
The second spot is the tractor pull. I let my kids color the Color Your Own Tractor Costume Box. They loved having ownership of their own tractor. It took a while for them to color the entire tractor so it was something they could come back to from time to time while they were in the center. They didn't mind if it wasn't "done". They got in the box and drove that tractor and were sure to make their own tractor sounds while they were behind the "wheel."
The next area the kids went to was the cow milking station. My kids are always so curious about cows and milk, so I took the Cow Piñata, a glove, and some pinto beans and made cow udders. I put the pinto beans into three of the fingers in the glove. Then I threaded the glove hand up through the basket and taped it down. I finished by putting the Cow Piñata over the top. We put the Large Galvanized Bucket under the udder, so kids could collect the "milk."
The next area was the chicken coop. We do a lot of talking about the Chicken Life Cycle in our class. Be sure to read about how we incorporate the Chicken Life Cycle into our Farm Unit here. We took a basket then put some brown yarn into it to make a nest. We then added the Chicken Hat and some eggs. The students loved using the Large Galvanized Bucket to collect the eggs.
The final area was a sensory table we moved into the dramatic play area. We used the Vegetable Stress Toys, pinto beans, a watering can, Kid's Farmer Vest, and Large Galvanized Bucket for this sensory table. The pinto beans stood in as dirt so the students could plant seeds, water their plants, and collect their crops. They looked so cute doing it too!
We loved turning our dramatic play center into a farm. We also used various farm themed sensory bins this week too. See the 6 Farm Sensory Table Ideas you can incorporate into your own room!
