Animal Babies on the Farm

Art and Language Arts Activity

WHAT YOU NEED

• Flash cards of ten farm animals
• Signs with animal names, as needed for games

WHAT TO DO

1. Prepare ten cards with the names (and, if possible, pictures) of the following animals that might be found on a farm. On the back of each card, write the name of that animal's baby and the sound the animal makes:

   cow/calf moo chicken /chick cluck dog/puppy bow wow duck/duckling quack goat/kid baa sheep/lamb baa pig/piglet oink cat/kitten meow goose/gosling honk horse/foal heee

2. Introduce the animals on the cards to the class. Then choose from four games that children can play to gain familiarity with the names. (The last two or three can be used as indoor activities when weather won't allow outdoor play at recess.)

   • Flash! Children flash cards at a partner, who must name the baby and make the sound.

   • Mix & Match Have children form two teams of five each. Write the names of mother and baby animals on pieces of paper and distribute them randomly. When you give the signal, mothers and babies must find each other, raise their hands together, and make the correct sounds.

   • Living Tic-Tack-Toe Make a tick-tack-toe pattern on the floor with masking tape. Have children form teams of X's and 0's. As you call the name of a mother animal for a team, the player who is up must correctly name the offspring. If the player answers correctly, she or he takes a place in the boxes. The first team to make a line of three gets to make all the noises at once. Games continue until all children have had at least one turn.

   • Back to the Barn Establish where the barn is (for example, at the front of the room) and randomly hand out names of mother and baby animals. When you says, "The barn door is open," all the baby animals can escape the barn and scatter to various spots in the room. The adults must stay in the barn. To get everyone back to the barn safely, the baby animals must say their mothers' name correctly as you call on them. The baby animal must then find its mother in the barn. The two the raise their hands together and make the right sound.

   To get more children involved in the game, make duplicate names for mothers and offspring.

TEACHING OPTIONS

You may wish to introduce children to more specific gender terminology for farm animals. For example, mare, stallion, colt, ewe, ram, gander, hen, rooster, bull, sow.

Children can look through illustrated books for models, then make and label pictures of wild animals (such as deer, rabbits, and seals) and their young.

After playing the various games, suggest that children think up their own variations. Encourage them to set up directions for playing, test their ideas with other children, and teach the final version to the class.