by Johanna Richardson

Created on: November 14, 2009

1. Create a farm book

Use any type of paper to make the book up, you can buy some very cheap coloured sugar paper.

These can be clipped together by piecing two holes near the centre and tie ribbon or string through the holes.

Depending on the age of the children, the book can be made up in different ways, either by cutting pictures from magazines and papers and sticking them in with glue or the child can draw the pictures themselves with brightly coloured pencils or crayons.

Make up a story for each page the child makes, which can be written in by the child itself or you can write it in, but keep it simple, for example:

Here is the farm where the animals live

Here is the farmer

Here is the chickens who cluck all day

Here is the cow who moos all day

I can see a horse looking at me

These are only a few examples you could use, make it fun and informative for the child.

There are many web sites on the internet where you can find pictures of farm animal to colour, here are a few.

Here is the farmer, print out the shape

Here is a Pig, print out the shape

Here is a cow, print out the shape

Here is a chicken, print out the shape

Here is a goat, print out the shape

Here is a horse, print out the shape

Let you child colour them with paints, crayons or coloured pencils.

2. Paper Bag Stick Horses

Cut 2 horse head shapes out of large brown paper bags. (The head shape should be fairly large.)

If child is young, simply glue or staple the two sides together, leaving a 4-5 inch gap to put in stick and stuffing at the bottom of the head.

(for older children, they could punch holes all around and lace a string through to sew them together.)

The children can then colour and decorate , not forgetting to put eyes on it. Stuff it with newspaper and use a cardboard tube into the neck, which can be glued in or stapled .

Then you can add hair made from wool or any yarns to have about in the house.

Older children could make smaller ones, using lollypop sticks and small brown bags.

3. Horse Shoes

Using cardboard cut out a horse shoe shape, this can be then decorated with foil or coloured sticky paper, if your child makes a few, you can then play a game of throwing horse shoes, it is lots of fun.

4. Clothes peg animals

Cut out animal body shapes without legs from stiff paper or cardboard, let the child paint or colour in, and add wool or yard for the hair which could be glued or sellotaped on to the shape, draw eyes and then let the child paint or colour in two clothes pegs and place one at the front of the body and one at the back of the body and you have a animal that stands up.

5. Soda Bottle Piggy Bank

With a small empty soda / pop bottle, you can make a piggy bank.

You can colour the inside first if you want, making sure it is dry before giving it to your child, or you can cut up small pieces of colour paper and let you child stick them on the bottle. It can be made to look like any animal you want from a pig to a sheep. For a sheep use wool curled up into balls to stick on. The bottle top is the hat of the animal, where pennies or cents are inserted for saving. Then you need to stick on a face, just below the bottle top and a tail near the bottom of the bottle, they could end up with a row of these, using each one for a different sized coin, thus teaching them to sort out the coins.

For lots of other ideas try this site out:

Farm animals templates.

Learn more about this author, Johanna Richardson.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.