Preschool Lesson Plan: Learning About Farms in the Classroom!

Preschool Lesson Plan: Learning About Farms in the Classroom!
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Lesson Objective

Including a preschool farm unit as a lesson plan meets the objective of teaching children all about farms. There are so many things that actually go on at the farm that there are a variety of ways to teach the unit! Use some or all of the suggestions below to help your students learn about farms.

Songs and Literacy

Any lesson plan is fun when you can sing along as you learn. Here are a couple of songs to teach children about farms.

Old MacDonald - This is a great way to teach children about the sounds different farm animals make. Use the traditional version

or add some of your own farm animals! This can also be used along with the Very Busy Spider Activity.

The Farmer in the Dell - Teach children how everything on the farm has a job using this fun sing along!

Activities

Hand Activities: For each of the hand activities below you will need: construction paper, glue, pencil or crayon, and scissors, as well as the other listed items.

Sheep Hand

You will need cotton balls and crayons in addition to the materials mentioned above.

  1. Have students trace their hand on the paper. Cut out the tracing.
  2. Flip the hand so that the fingers point downward.
  3. Glue the cotton balls on the palm part of the hand.
  4. Color the fingers so that you have 4 black or grey legs and one black or grey head to create a sheep.

Turkey Hand

The construction paper for this should be brown. You will also need small feathers and crayons.

  1. Ask students to trace their hand on the paper. Cut out the tracing.
  2. Turn the hand so that the fingers point up.
  3. Color all of the fingers, but not the thumb so that they are different colors and look like feathers.
  4. Color the thumb to look like a turkey face.
  5. Glue feathers on the back of the hand between the fingers so that they look like naturally alternating feathers.
  6. Enjoy your turkey!

Peanut Butter Dough

Be sure to check that none of the children are allergic to peanuts before making an edible peanut butter dough.

You will need 3 tablespoons honey, 4 tablespoons peanut butter, 1/2 cup dry milk, 1/4 cup crushed cereal flakes or graham cracker crumbs, butter (amount varies).

Talk with students about the self sufficiency of a farm. Every ingredient that they are using in the recipe started at a farm. Discuss the various ingredient and how they are developed as you follow the steps below. Be sure that everyone has washed their hands before touching any of the food products.

  1. Mix together honey and peanut butter.
  2. Add dry milk a little at a time, mixing well.
  3. Allow each child to have a pat of butter to coat their hands. Now is a great time to talk about the texture of butter.
  4. Allow each child to have some of the dough to shape and play with.
  5. Coat the shapes with dry cereal flakes or graham cracker crumbs.
  6. Chill until firm.

Field Trips

No preschool farm unit is complete without a trip to the farm. Check with your local petting zoo that usually has farm animals. This is a great way to be able to see the difference between farm animals and zoo animals as you actually see them in the same setting.