Farmyard Fun!

After discovering some activity sheets on the National Farmers Union website, teaching children about where food comes from, I felt inspired to create a Farm play area for Arthur's return from nursery.

I rummaged through my collection of old curtains, found some brown ones to be muddy fields for the pigs, and some nursery curtains with farm animals on the be grazing fields.  I then went through the toys and found all the farm animals and tractors.  I rummaged through the play food toys to find things that can be made from the farm and I also dug out some farm related books and puzzles, that I left out for the two of them to pick up as and when they wanted.

They both loved the set up and immediately put on their farmers hats (although Arthur's was too big, thanks to daddies big head!) and got stuck in.  Arthur picked up the eggs the chickens had laid and pretended to eat them, and wanted to feed the animals so I got some animal food (lentils!) for the pigs and told him the cows and sheep eat the grass.  I then suggested that I wanted a cup of tea, but 'Oh no, we have no milk, where does milk come from?' So then Arthur put the cow on the jug to get milk and made me a tea! He also used the tractor to "Bring in hay!" which he always says when he sees a tractor thanks to the song.  We sang 'Old Macdonald' using their musical book, and various other farm animal songs.  Alyssa mainly enjoyed looking at the books and gumming the plates as she is teething, but Arthur was off in his own little world feeding the animals and doing the puzzles. 

Definitely a great tool for imagination, language skills, puzzle solving and maths skills.

The book selection

The farm

Play food

Trying on Alyssa's hat

Fresh eggs

Feeding the cows

Alyssa the farmer

Bringing in the hay

Playing nicely

Cup of tea time

Puzzle time

Sharing a book together

Cleaning up for mummy