Who's in the Barnyard?

We headed to the barnyard for some fun on the farm.

We read Old MacDonald Had a Farm by Carol Jones and sang the song over and over again.

We also read  Inside a Barn in the Country by Alyssa Satin Capueilli.

Being a farmer and driving a tractor looks like lots of fun. We used a play tractor dipped in paint to "plow the fields".

Our water play was filled with rubber ducks with which to play.

We read the book Five Little Ducks

and sang:
Five little ducks went out to play
Over the hill and far away
Mommy duck called,
“Quack, quack, quack, quack,”
Only Four little ducks came back.
Three little....Two little...One little...
No little ducks went out to play
Over the hill and far away

Mommy duck called,
"Quack, quack, quack, quack.”
(quack really loud)

Five little ducks came wandering back!

We sang “Mary had a Little Lamb” and “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and then read the books by Iza Trapani by the same names- Baa Baa Black Sheep and Mary Had a Little Lamb. Some fun verses have been added to these traditional rhymes.

We used cotton balls to print on sheep shapes!  We dipped the cotton balls in paint and printed on our shapes. We added clothespins for legs, some eyes, a nose and some of us added our own special touches.

Next, we told stories about our sheep.

My lamb is named Anna. She lives in a castle.
She is a queen. She likes to stay up all nights
and while she's staying up all night, she reads her
Pirate Princess book. She likes to play games.
She plays with her best toy ever
which is her kitty cat.
Her kitty cat is named Ella.
She likes to watch rainbows rise up. 

My lamb is a princess.
Her name is Princess.
She lives on the farm.
She likes to play with a lady.
She likes to eat buttons.

My lamb is named Cow.
He lives at my house.
He eats grass.
He likes to walk in the street and
go to the supermarket.
He buys oranges at the supermarket.
He likes to jump in the water.

My lamb's name is Mary.
Mary lives on the farm.
She likes to run.
She likes to eat grass and eat stems.
She plays with stuffed animals.
We read Dora's Eggs by Julie Sykes. We had a basket of eggs and a carton for sorting. 

Then we played "Fox and the Hens". We pretended to be hens and somebody was a fox. The hens had a bunch of colored eggs- 4 or 5 colors. While they were sleeping (hiding their eyes), fox "stole" one of the eggs. When the hens woke up, they had to figure out which egg was missing. We took turns being the hens and the fox.

 Of course we had horses to ride on the farm.

It was loads of fun to milk a pretend cow. Bessie loves to squirt!

With the milk and cream we got from the cow, we churned our own butter which we had on crackers for snack.

We got down and dirty with the pigs on the farm. We played in the mud. It was really chocolate pudding...

What an awesome sensory experience!