THEME: FARMS

This year I want to be a little less haphazard about my two little one’s activities.   A4 will continue to have her one hour school with me doing Mathusee Primer and Jolly Phonics.  I want to be more  purposeful about the fun school I do with the two little girls.  To this end I’ve created a Preschool Adventure Box and a written frame-work with which to organise my planning of the short units I do with them.  Ask Mr Bear is a quaint story of a little boy wondering what to give to his mother for her birthday.  He asks all the animals on the farm (hence the farm theme), but doesn’t get any real inspiration until he talks to Mr Bear who suggests he gives her a hug!  We’ve done farms now spread over 1 1/2 weeks-I’m looking forward to moving onto something different, perhaps without books which are constantly mooing!!

• Read alouds and go along books

These were the little one’s bed time read alouds.  They were also available in the morning whilst the older ones were doing their chores and also during quiet time.

     

• Factual books

In the same vein as the fiction books, these were available in the morning and during quiet time to browse through.  Mainly used for their pictures rather than script.

     

The older children also often take time to read to the little ones:

For more themed book ideas see:

In the mornings the younger two, especially B1, play with play dough.  Like last week, I made a play dough mat by photo copying the front page of Ask Mr Bear:

• Dress up and drama

For this unit we had dress up:

A farm-yard barn with toy animals:

• Trays

And some photos of the girls in action:

• Games or Group activities:

• Classification Cards and map activities

• Printables

http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/FarmPrintables.htm

http://www.abcteach.com/directory/theme-units-farm-3688-2-1

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/farm-animals-printables.htm

• Snacks

1. Chicken Feed

2. Pigs in Blankets

3.  If you happen to have a birthday, then buy a Mr Bear shaped cake and palm it off as a snack!

4.  As I didn’t do a muffin tin meal with lots of wonderful farm shapes, I decided to do a mini muffin tin snack tray:

• DVD’s and YouTube videos and any other learning bits and pieces

   

• Muffin Tin Meal

This weeks muffin tin comes from C10 who did it all by herself:

We decided to do a muffin tin containing all the things you would find produced on a farm.  At the same time we thought this particular muffin tin meal would sit quite proudly on a farmer’s table!

C10 cooked bacon strips, mini sausages, toast cut up into mini rectangles, scrambled egg, mini tomatoes, baked beans and fried mini button mushrooms.  The little ones LOVED it and everything disappeared in minutes!

For more muffin tin ideas see:

• Special Trip Out to the Farm

We took a trip to the farm for B2’s birthday, so that B2 would have the opportunity to see many animals she’d never seen before.  B2 loves all types of animals and is not scared at all.  She had a ball!

Fun time had by all!

For more tot and preschool ideas click on these wonderful blogs:

   

And for the blog roll for FIAR:

http://fiveinarow.com/blog/2013/03/04/how-others-use-before-five-in-a-row-blog-hop/