* Song Tractors, Tractors (tune: "Daisy, Daisy") Tractors, tractors, tractors help farmers work. They pull plows that break up the clumps of dirt. W farmer can work much faster Because he has a tractor. There's lots to do the whole year through. Tractors help farmers do the work. Song Shovels, Rakes & Even Hoes (tune: "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star") Shovels, rakes, and even hoes Help the farmer as he sows. First,he digs into the ground; Then he plants some seeds around. Shovels, rakes, and even hoes Help the farmer as he sows. Poem I Found A Little Seed I found a little seed so tiny and round. Then I dug a little whole and put it in the ground. The sun shone brightly and the rain came down. Then up came a flower that was yellow and brown. Have a Farmer Day. Let the kids come dressed as a farmer! Overalls, bandanas, straw hats, etc..... * Here are a bunch of activities for the theme : On the Farm... Day 1 week 1 Daily objective: To express individual creativity Dramatic play- Encourage the children to pretend to be farmers, using any props you have available. Art- Have the children draw pictures of a farm and animals. Language- Have the children imitate the sounds of several different farm animals. Record their voice and replay the tape so they can hear themselves. Blocks- Encourage the children to build a farm. Provide some toy farm animals to enhance their play. Song- Sing Farmer in the Dell... Day 2 week1 Daily objective: Practice counting, To engage in dramatic play Song- ten little pigs (Tune- "five little Ducks went out to play") Ten little pigs rolled in the mud - Squishy, squashy, felt so good. The farmer took one piggy out. "Oink, Oink, oink," the pig did shout! Continue with nine, eight, seven so forth, then... No little pigs rolled in the mud. They all looked so clean and good. The farmer turned his back and then, Those pigs rolled in the mud again. Manipulative- Ahead of time, mix water and dirt to form some thick mud. Divide the mud among several zipper-top freezer bags and close the top of each bag. Have the children practice printing numbers in the mud. SHow them how to smooth the mud out so they can make a new number. Large Muscle: Have the children pretend to roll in the mud. Spread out a large blanket to represent a pigpen. Encourage kids to lie down and roll across. Day 3 week1 Daily Objective: To become familiar with pigs as animals that live on the farm. Group Activity: Help the children become more familiar with pigs as animals that live on the farm. Make a puppet ahead of time of a pig and have him say, " Hi, My name is patrick pig. I live on Farmer Sam's farm. Have you ever seen a pig before? Encourage the kids to tell what they already know about pigs. Here is some extra information about pigs: * Pigs are very smart * Pigs roll in the mud to protect themselves from the sun and insects. * Pigs use their snouts to root for food in the ground. * There are several different kinds of pigs. * Male pigs are called boars, females are called sows, and babies are called shoats or piglets * When a pig weighs more than 120 pounds, it is called a hog. Dramatic play- Make pig puppets. Begin by having each child paint a plain white paper cup pink. When the paint dries, have the child create some pink construction paper ears and tape them to the cup. The kids can add wiggle eyes or draw eyes with markers. Help the kids use a sharpened pencil to poke a hole in the lower side of the puppet. The child can then slip a finger into the hole to manipulate the puppet. Blocks: Encourage the children to build pigpens for toy pigs. Day 4 week1 Daily objective:To become familiar with the nursery rhyme "To market, to market" To express individual creativity Group activity: Introduce the nursery rhyme"to market, to market" with Patrick pig puppet. First, have patrick say, "I live on Farmers sam;s farm now, but I used to belong to Farmer Matilda." One day farmer Matilda took me to the market to sell. Farmer Sam came to the market and bought me to take home. Have you ever been to a farmer's market? TO MARKET, TO MARKET To market, to market to buy a fat pig, Home again, home again, Jiggety-jig. ART- Ahead of time, cut a 3" x 18" posterboard strip for each child. Also trim off the top half of a large paper grocery bad for each child. Make shopping bags. Have each child decorate a precut grocery bag with crayons, markers, or any other materials from the ART area. Help each child staple a precut posterboard strip to the bag to form a handle. Encourage the kids to use their shopping bags during today's DRAMATIC PLAY activity. DRAMATIC PLAY- Have the kids set up an imaginary farmer's market. Have them print prices 1 cent to 10 cents on index cards and tape them to toy fruit and vegatables, toy farm animals, or other items. Provide some pennies and encourage the children to pretend to buy and sell the items. Any children who have created shopping bags in the ART could use them to carry their 'purchases.' OTHER ART: Have children put pink thumbprints on a piece of construction paper and make the prints into pigs. Day 5 week 1 Daily objective: To become familiar with cattle as farm animals. To improve small motor skills. Group Activity: Ahead of time, try to locate one or more pictures of real cattle. Introduce cattle with Patrick pig. Have Patrick say, "Clover the cow is one of my best friends on Farmer Sam's farm. Have you ever seen a cow?" Have Patrick share come of the following information about cows. * Cows are female cattle. Males are called bulls and babies are called calves. * Cows provide milk, which is the source of daily products, including cheese, butter, and yogurt. * The organ on a cow that holds her milk is called an udder or a bag. * There are many varieties of cattle. Transition: Have the kids moo like cows as they move to the next activity. Art: Ahead of time, cut sponges into chuncks. Clip each chunk into a spring-type clothspin. Pour Black paint into shallow dishes. Paint cow spots on large sheets of paper. Dramatic play: Ahead of time, make a pinhole in each fingertip of a latex glove. Outside, hang a clothesline about three feet above the ground. Clip the prepared glove to the clothesline with a spring-type clothespin. Place a pail below the glove and a low stool or chair beside it. To help the kids understand more about cows, milk a glove! Fill the prepared glove with water. Let the kids take turns squeezing the fingertips of the glove as if milking, so that the bucket goes into the bucket. Science: Make butter!!! Place some heavy cream in a baby food jar. Have the kids shake the jar ten times. If desired, mix in a pinch of salt and a few drops of yellow food coloring. Spread the butter on crackers for kids to taste. * Week 2 day 1 Daily objective: To express individual creativity ART: Ahead of time, cut small paper plates in hAlf. Each child will need a half. Make ribbons rainbows. Have each child cut assorted colors of ribbon and tape them along the stright edge of the paper plate. Next, have the child spread glue over the plate and cover it with cotton balls. TODAY WE STUDIED THE LETTER "R" Song: Ring around the rosie Science: Measure rain with a rain guage. Day 2 week2 Daily objective: To begin to reconize the color blue. Song: The Fairy star Tune: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star The Fairy has a brand new star. You can see it from afar. It is blue as blue can be, Like the sky and deeo blue sea. Everybody look for blue. I can find some; you can, too. Transition: Have the kids continue to look for the color blue as they move to the next activity. Art: Ahead of time, cut a large kite for each child from blue construction paper. Have each child glue assorted blue collage materials to a blue paper kite. Manipulative: Ahead of time, tint uncooked rice blue. help each child make a tactile capital and lowercase R. Have the child squeeze a line of glue along each letter and sprinkle blue rice over the glue. tell them, the word rice begins with the letter R. SNACK: Ahead of time, make blue rice krispie snacks. Use the recipe below. 1/2 cup butter blue food coloring 30 large marshmellows 5 cups of Kelloggs rice Krispies Butter a large bowl and a baking sheet and set aside. melt butter and marshmellows in a sauce pan over low heat. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil and continue to boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in several drop of blue food coloring. pour rice Krispiesinto the buttered bowl. Pour hot marshmellow mixture over cereal and stir well to coat. Spread mixture onto a buttered cookie sheet. pat down well with a buttered spoon. Refridgerate until set. Day 3 week 2 Daily objective: to become familiar with rabbits as animals on the farm Group Activity: Ahead of time, try to find some pictures of domestic rabbits. Talk about rabbits. Ask kids what they know abot rabbits. Then share this information with them. * Rabbits have 2 rows of top, front teeth. their teeth continue to grow as . long as they live. * Rabbits can see and hear very well. * Some rabbits ears stand tall and straight. The ears of other rabbits flop flop. * Male rabbits are called bucks, females are called does, and babies are called kittens. Transition: Suggest that the kids hop like rabbits to the next activity. Science: Plant radish seeds. before you begin, tell the kids that rabbiits like to eat something that begins with the letter R- radishes. help each child fill a small cup with potting soil. Have the child sprinkle a few radish seeds on top and cover lightly with soil. Place the seeds in a sunny window. Add enough water to moisten the soil, but dont over water. Craft: Make paper plate rabbits. Have each child attach a small paper plate to a large paper plate. Next, have each childcut 2 rabbit ears from white construction paper and glue them to the small plate for ears. Encourage the children to use crayons or markers to add facial features and ither details. Finally, have each child glue a cottonball tail to the rabbit. Day 4 week 2 Daily Objective: To become familiar with chilckens as animals on the farm. To observe cause and effect. Group Activity: Ahead of time, try to find some pictures of chickens. Ask the children if they have ever seen a chicken or hen or rooster. Share this with the group after they give there answers. * Chickens are birds, but they cannot fly very far. * Hens lay eggs. Some eggs are used for cooking and eating. * Roosters are the only birds with a comb on their head. Transition: Encourage the children to crow like roosters as they move to the next activity. Large muscle: Play the rooster crows. Remind the kids that the rooster wakes up all the farm animals each morning. Encourage everyone to pretend to be a sleeping farm animal. When you crow, everyone should get up and move like the animal they are role-playing. When you crow again, everyone should go back to sleep. Science: Help the children discover the effect of mixing white paint into blue paint. Before you begin ask, " How will blue paint change if we mix in some white paint?" After the children have made their predictions, encourage them to use paintbrushes to mix the two colors on plain white paper. Have them change the proportions several times to observe the effect. Day 5 week 2 Daily objective: To identify the color blue. To explore water. To refine small motor skills. Manipulative: Encourage the children to create with blue playdoh. They may choose to make eggs, farm animals, seeds, or other things. Large muscle: Roll eggs! Mark off a start and a finish line with masking tape or chalk. Have the children push plastic eggs with spoons to move them from the start to finish line. Water play: Add blue food coloring to the water in the water table or large basin. Snack: Ahead of time, use the foloowing recipe to prepare blue frozen pops. Mix 3oz package of blue gelatin, 1 envelope of blue powdered beverage mix, and 1 cup sugar into 2 cups of boiling water. Stir until dissolved. Add 2 cups of cold water and stir well. If you do not have molds, pour the mixture into small paper cups. Cover the top with foil and insert a popsicle craft stick through foil. Freeze.