Alphabet • Farm • FREE Printables • Kindergarten • Letter of the Week • Preschool

C is for Cow (Farm Unit)

October 28, 2011
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by Beth Gorden

Our C is for Cow unit was filled with lots of hands on farm fun for toddler, preschool, and kindergarten kids. Come grab some fun free printables like nocturnal farm animals, crafts, hands on learning activities, and more.
C is for Cow Farm Unit for Toddler, Preschool, and Kindergarten

Children of all ages are fascinated with life on the farm! The farm is filled with big powerful tractors, fields and fields of growing crops that look like a fun maze to explore, adorable baby animals that serve a purpose, and usually a charming farm house complete with a silo and tire swing. I think all of us long for the idea of simpler times and being closer to our food source – although no one seems to miss the manure smell =)

C is for Cow

This week in our letter of the week unit we are talking about life on the farm for kids. This is a great addition to a farm theme, alphabet introduction, or a variety of other uses for parents, teachers, and homeschoolers alike. The ideas and activities in our unit our geared towards toddler, preschool, pre k, kindergarten, first grade, and 2nd grade students.

Goofy Milking a Cow by hand  Goofy (6) & Minnie (3) making friends with a cow

Farm Fieldtrip 

We went to a working historic farm & took a couple of educational classes. We learned about cows & got a chance to milk a cow by hand! We also got to observe how much faster a machine is able to milk a cow! We’ve also been to a commercial dairy farm and witnessed the cow “merry go round” as cows get on and off the hundred cow milking machine.

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We got to visit other farm animals  like the sheep who had recently been sheered, young pigs, and large sturdy farm horses. Plus a restored farm house from the 1930s.

Goofy watching the chickens while the farmer gave us some information on chickens & eggsGoofy with an egg he gathered himself from a chicken - how cool is that!

One of our favorite classes was learning about chicken. (This prompted us to hatch and raise our own backyard chickens).  In the class we learned about chickens, their habitats, and got to collect farm fresh eggs to take home and eat. For lack of a better work the fresh eggs tasted more “eggy”.

Click to download Barnyard Counting Clip-on FREE PRINTABLE from Living Life Intentionally

Farm Math Activity

We practiced counting up to 20 with Barnyard Counting Clip-On. I love the concept of these – they integrate counting, fun animals, the animal habitats, and the tactile exercise of clipping on the clothespin to the correct number. I guarantee your kids will love them ~ mine sure did!
Counting farm animals with Grandma  Minnie (3) LOVED putting the clothespins on top of the correct number of animals!

Farm Worksheets for Kids

My kids LOVE worksheets. And I am always impressed by how much better Minnie (3) does each and every week. So bring on the worksheet fun as long as my kids are enjoying them! For this week I used these wonderful FREE  farm theme worksheets and these farm animals theme worksheets. The printable pack includes: tracing, which is different, building words with scrabble tiles, where things come from simple puzzles, pattern cards, mazes, number puzzles, shadow match-up,  cut & paste, and so much more. They are HUGE packs for toddlers, preschoolers, prek, kindergartners, and grade 1.

Farm Sensory Box

Farm Sensory Box

I made a Farm sensory box to go along with our weekly theme. The kids had a BLAST! The base of the sensory box was Fruit & Nut birdseed (giving it a fruity scent).
I also included metal shovels, rakes & measuring cups that were fun for scooping & made a wonderful sound. More fun: Pig Splat balls that were a hoot and a half, farm animal stamps, and farm stencils all from Oriental Trading Company. I purchased a farm animal Toob with very realistic animals, farm, tractor and hitch. I included some farm sticker scenes I had (not sure from where). And I included Hide and Seek eggs that come in a cute little 6 egg carton; You match the shapes on the bottom of the eggs to the cartoon – they also squeak and are colorful inside.  Minnie’s favorite was a soft plastic mouse & cheese I found at Michaels; you could push the mouse into any of the cheese holes leaving just the face or tale peaking out – I still hear the giggling =-)
Frog-Addition-Game
As part of this week long farm unit we also played this Nocturnal Farm Animals Game and this Frog Math Game.
making homemade butter for preschoolersmaking homemade butter for preschoolersmaking homemade butter for preschoolersmaking homemade butter for preschoolers

Homemade Butter Activity

We also tried some practical science that would have been used on the farm over and over again for years – we made our own butter. You can learn more about homemade butter science experiment, but basically we took 1 pint heavy whipping cream and put it in a container that sealed. Now shake 20 minutes (or use mixer to speed things up), pour off the liquid at top, and tada you have made about 1 cup of homemade, creamy butter – YUM!!)

Farm Hand Art for Kids

Farm Crafts for Kids

What’s a good farm week without some fun farm crafts? These are great for creativity and developing motor skills.
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Farm Animal Hand Art

I love handprint crafts. They are fun to make, capture our cuties precious little hands, and are always a hit with young learners. We made a hand art sheep with black fingers, horse with brow hand/fingers, and duck with sideways yellow hand/fingers. My Kindergartener painted the barn and sun.
Milk Jug Cow  Finished farm craft - millk jug cow

c is for cow craft

We painted a 1 galloon milk just white. Then we added black spots. The lid was the nose – we just added 2 nostrils. We added some googly eyes and cardstock ears. Such a fun project!
Farm Silo Craft for Kids

Farm Silo from Oatmeal Container

Using an oatmeal container we covered it with red construction paper. We cut a circle from white construction paper and made a cone top.
Click to download FREE Spanish Farm Flashcards from Living Life Intentionally  Click to download FREE Spanish Farm Flashcards from Living Life Intentionally

Spanish Farm Vocabulary 

We learned some farm Spanish Vocabulary.  It is easiest for kids to pick up a new language when they are young, so if you aren’t already doing so, I’d encourage you to introduce another language.

farm counting worksheets farm printable beginner reading book  FREE Seeds Find the Letter Worksheets

Farm Printables

Looking for more FREE farm printables to help kids learn a variety of skills? You will love these resources:

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About the author

Beth Gorden

Beth Gorden is the creative multi-tasking creator of 123 Homeschool 4 Me. As a busy homeschooling mother of six, she strives to create hands-on learning activities and worksheets that kids will love to make learning FUN! She has created over 1 million pages of printables to help teach kids ABCs, science, English grammar, history, math, and so much more! Beth is also the creator of 2 additional sites with even more educational activities and FREE printables - www.kindergartenworksheetsandgames.com and www.preschoolplayandlearn.com

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