Preschool Syllabus: Farms

We started a new homeschool unit this week: farms. With all our harvest activities it seemed like a natural choice.  This last weekend we attended a neighboring town's scarecrow festival and we plan to go to a pumpkin farm with a barnyard petting zoo in the next couple weeks. We will focus on this unit for the rest of October.

our fact board, filled with things we've learned so far

During our rug times the boys and I will be singing a lot of farm related songs (Counting Coconuts has complied a great list) and make our way through the mass of books I checked out from the library.  I won't overwhelm you with a picture of them all but I will recommend a couple. For fiction Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin and Gossie by Olivier Dunrea.  Both of these books have a nice rhythm, great pictures, and sweet humor. We actually own them and several others by these authors - they are some of the most read books in our collection.  For nonfiction, 21st Century Junior Library, has published several great farm-themed books.

Writing Center Additions

farm animals cards in spanish & english, farm stickers, paint strips 
for cutting practice, line tracings (pdf found via musings of me)
skills practiced: fine motor, vocabulary, creativity, expressing self through print

Learning "Trays" - I rotate these setting out about four a day from which the boy's can choose.

animal counters with patterning strips and sorting cards
skills practiced: patterning & sorting

magnetic farm animals vs non farm animals (magnetic animals
 from a melissa & doug puzzle book)
skills practiced: classifying, science knowledge

painting with farm animal stencils
skills practiced: creativity, fine motor, color mixing

tractor tracks painting
skills practiced: fine motor, creativity 

observation notebook with fall items (the buddy is very in to 
being a scientist lately so we are calling this his lab book)
skills practiced: observing, recording data, expressing ideas through print,
comparing

adult/child nomenclature cards (pdf via counting coconuts)
skills practiced: classifying , vocabulary, science knowledge 

farm animals and their by-products (this is a pdf we created,
click here to use)
skills practiced: science knowledge, classifying

numerical ordering and memory with harvest themed cards 
(using only two suits with cards 1-10)
skills practiced: rational counting, numeral recognition, social, memory

 pumpkin uppercase/lowercase letter match (pumpkins were made 
with plaster of Paris and a pumpkin ice cube tray)
skills practiced: letter recognition

farm animal pattern cards (pdfs via prekinders)
skills practiced: fine motor, shapes, geometry, problem solving

counting scoops of bird feed into numbered cups
skills practiced: fine motor, rational counting, volume, numeral regonition

bird feed and farm animal sensory bin (the last sensory bin i 
created didn't hold my boys' interest for long; I think it was too 
busy for them. this time I kept things simple and so far they've
appeared much more engaged)
skills practiced: fine motor, creativity, imaginative play

jiffy mix playdough and cookie cutters
skills practiced: fine motor, creativity, ordering, sizes

the chicken game (borrowed from library)
skills practiced: social, attention, science knowledge

farm puzzles
skills practiced: fine motor, spatial reasoning, problem solving, 

l;'
One final silly (literally) thing we've added to our homeschooling syllabus is jokes; The Buddy has really started to enjoy a "good" joke lately.  It's so much fun to watch him excitedly retell them, that I had to find a couple farm related ones.

What did the egg say to the other egg?

Let's get cracking!

What do you call a sleeping bull?

A bull-dozer!

Where do cows go on Friday nights?

To the moo-vies

What do you give a sick pig?

Oinkment!

Hope they made you chuckle :)

P.S. Check out our homeschool page for more theme units and educational ideas.