Inside: This barn and farm animals printable can be used in a variety of ways during the farm theme. Perfect for toddlers and preschoolers!
Toddlers and preschoolers love the song “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”, so I’ve created props that can be used at circle time or in small groups.
Each activity mentioned below gets children involved in the song while learning how to recognize different farm animals and the sounds they make.
👉 Scroll down towards the bottom of this post to find the free pdf download that goes with all 3 activities!
Free Barn and Farm Animals Printable Activity
Put the Farm Animals in the Barn Activity
Make 1 copy of the barn and make enough copies of the animals so that each child has one.
Before introducing this activity to your toddlers and preschoolers, cut the animals out of the printable and hide around the room. (For best results, copy onto heavy paper or laminate.)
Next, place the barn printable in a visible spot on the floor, such as your circle time area.
Now, tell the children that the barn is empty. Where did the animals go?
Explain that they are each going to find 1 animal and take it back to the barn.
As each child finds an animal, remind them to place it on top of the barn.
The activity finishes when all of the farm animals have been found.
Old MacDonald Had a Farm Circle Time Activity
Rather than hide the animals, hand each child an animal to hold.
Explain that you are going to sing Old MacDonald Had a Farm, and when a child has the animal that is mentioned, they place it in the barn.
Do this until all the animals have been mentioned in the song and placed on the farm.
Old MacDonald Had a Farm Stick Puppets
Circle time activities are always more fun with props!
What you will need:
- Enough copies of each animal so that every child involved as 1 stick puppet
- Craft sticks
- Glue stick
Assembling the farm stick puppets:
After cutting each animal from the printable, glue it onto a craft stick.
Remember to make enough for each child involved. In this case, I doubled the copies to make 12 stick puppets:
Tell the children that when you call out their animal during the song, they are to hold their animal up high.
Make sure each animal is mentioned in the song.
You can also use this printable to create animal blocks!
Stephanie, a member of our Teaching Toddlers and Preschoolers group, shared how she reduced the size of our farm animals a bit so that they would fit on her blocks. She then attached them and the children had fun using them in her block area!
Click on the photo below for the pdf download:
🐴 Planning your farm theme? We’ve done the work for you! 👩🏼🌾
We have toddler (18-36 months) AND preschool (3-5 years) farm themed lesson plans!
Explore a variety of hands-on activities!
Easy to follow lesson plans include activity modifications and adaptations to meet the needs of all learners.
Comes with recommended reading lists, songs, material lists and more!
Click on the photos below for more information about each one:
