Farm Preschool Unit

This week Logan and I started our first weekly preschool unit! This is something I am very excited about. Logan loves to learn and we are capitalizing on that early. I am recording our activities here for my own records, but I would love to share with you.
Logan is only two, so I am making an effort to keep this very simple. We are foremost having fun, and just happen to be learning along the way. If anything we try isn't fun, then we won't do it.

For our kick-off unit I picked a farm theme.

OUR BOOKS

Maisy's Morning on the Farm by Lucy Cousins
Biscuit's Day at the Farm by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
Who Loves the Farm? by Sandra Sarver
Tractor Day by Candice Ransom
Bumpety Bump by Pat Hutchins
I Spy on the Farm by Edward Gibbs
Good Morning, Farm by Parachute Press
The Vegetables We Eat by Gail Gibbons
The Farm by Stuart A. Kallen
Farm Animals by Stewart Ross

MUDDY PIG
First we talked about what color pigs are, what sound they make, how they use mud to cool off, hoofs, snouts, what letter "pig" starts and ends with, and read about pigs.
He colored his pig pink,

then painted it with our coffee "mud" mixture.

http://www.two-daloo.com/muddy-pigs-painting-with-coffee-grounds/

MATCHING GAME

I made an index card to match each character from his barn. He loves to talk about what letter words start with. This game is a way of expounding on that interest and introducing the concept that after the beginning letter there are more letters that form a word.
Before he ever saw the index cards, we played with the animals and farmer and talked about what letter each one of them starts with. "Sheep" is a little tricky for him, as we are not introducing blends to a two-year-old!
The game included quite a bit of coaching, but he absolutely loved it!
No link for this one, it is a Lowly Nest original. :)


STICKY SHEEP
We watched this video about sheep: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtP63IOhg1Y

This one was very simple. Cotton balls and contact paper. I want to recreate this activity using pom poms with later themes, because he loved it!

http://www.two-daloo.com/sticky-sheep/

T is for TRACTOR
This one was another huge hit! Logan loves tractors. This was his first time using glue, and he fell in love! I see more glue activities in our future. We read our tractor books before we made these.

 He loved the first one so much he wanted to make another one. I used the scraps to make a mini tractor. He is still playing with these!

http://totallytots.blogspot.com/2010/04/now-i-know-my-abcs-t-is-for-tractor.html

E is for EGG
When Mimi and Gramps visited they brought us some farm fresh eggs. Yum! I knew I wanted to do an activity with the eggshells. My mom thought of this one. Thanks Mimi! I drew these Ee's myself. I couldn't find a place to print letters like this anywhere!
We talked about chickens laying eggs and that egg starts with "e."

To be honest, even though I washed the eggshells, this activity completely grossed me out and I would not do it again. Logan kept asking to "shell more eggs" though. At least he liked it!

SHAPES GOAT
Before we made our goat we learned a little about goats, and talked about what shapes we were using to make our goat. I helped with the horns, ears, and goatee, and Logan did that cute face.

http://www.fantasticfunandlearning.com/g-is-for-goat-shapes-craft.html

Logan also learned about crops that grow on farms! My parents brought us a beautiful bounty from their own large garden!

 Mimi taught Logan how to shell peas. He worked hard for almost an hour. Then once he got down he kept coming back for more!

Our first week was without a doubt a success. Logan learned a lot, and had a blast!