Happy Spring, y’all! Just saying, the season puts an extra spring in my step! I’m currently working on a list of springtime themes for early childhood classrooms. And you know what this means. I have a question for my blog buddies who teach thematically.
What’s your favorite time of year
for a farm theme?
Moo!
Diane
I love our farm study! We usually study farms in late April or early May. It always includes a visit to a working farm. The children’s excitement and amazement are priceless!
We have the Missouri State Fair right outside our backdoor so naturally with all the farm animals in view, we like the Farm theme in August.
I usually do a farm study in June/July. We plant sunflower seeds to take home and also make butter with the kids. Parents are always amazed that they MADE butter with some learning right along with their child.
I like to do my farm theme around September because that is the time that our county fair comes into town. The kids get to go to the petting zoo and see the real farm animals. We give them the background knowledge, then we take them to see the real thing!!!
Good Morning and Happy Spring,
Just thought that I’d share with you what our spring weather is like! Today it is -26 with winds at 10 mph so it feels like -46! But, the light is out and that’s a good thing. Yep, we are above the Arctic Circle.
Our favorite themes are very Inupiat Eskimo culture based…4th graders do a Time and Ptarmigan unit, 6th graders do an Adventures in Trading unit, and as the sun sets in November and doesn’t come back until January, night sky units are pretty popular.
Jill
Our Fair is in April/May so we do Farm in April and May and talk about spring and baby animals before we go to the fair. 🙂
I do farm in May and we always take a trip to the farm then. One year I go to Calders dairy in Monroe Mi and the kids actually see a milk truck and milk in bottles. The following year we go to the Real Life Farm in Canton that is more like a petting farm. I love the farm trip.
I do a unit on farming and farm animals in the Fall. I have a friend who is a farmer and is willing to bring his tractor in for the boys and girls to look at. We schedule it first thing in the morning so he doesn’t lose out on harvesting time.
Stephanie – If you have the MO State Fair right outside, you must be in Sedalia! (I miss MO so much!)
Our new curriculum has no farm theme. I have an entire box of farm manipulatives that I won’t be using anymore.
It really feels strange not to have a farm theme. I was used to it for years.
I do my farm unit in the fall. I have even started the year with the farm theme throughout my classroom. For example:
*farm animal nametags
*farm animal cubby tags
*big barn with each one’s name on an animal for
the helper chart
*each center would have activities that deal
the farm (set up a milking station with a
wooden cow and a rubber glove to milk)
*make farm mask with paperplates and craft
sticks
*field trip to a dairy farm and a regular farm.
This could go on and on……
We do our farm theme in April, after we do plantsin March. We move from plants to farm to wild animals.
I do a Farm Unit in May. We have a field trip in May and my team coordinates the unit with our field trip. The children have an opportunity to ride on a horse and see different farm animals. We also tie our Pond unit which we do in April to the field trip.