Montessori-Inspired Farm Activities Using Farm Replicas and Free Printables

By Deb Chitwood from Living Montessori Now

I have a review and awesome giveaway at Living Montessori Now of farm-themed Safari TOOBS. (Note: I was given the farm TOOBS used in this post for my giveaway review.This post contains Montessori Services affiliate links.) 

For my post today, I want to share some activities using farm replicas and free farm printables. This is ridiculously long, but there were so many cute free farm printables online that I just couldn't resist! 

Although I love the realistically designed Safari Ltd. replicas, you could use other miniature farm animals and figures for the activities you prepare.

The hands-on activities in this post are for preschoolers through first graders. Many of the activities are for young preschoolers although there are often variations for kindergarteners and first graders. You'll find many more activities for preschoolers through first graders throughout the year along with presentation ideas in my previous posts at PreK + K Sharing.

Farm Animal Matching using Safari Ltd. TOOB Keys 

At Living Montessori Now, I have images from Safari Ltd. that you can print out after clicking on and saving the images of the key for each farm TOOB. (For dinosaur TOOB fans, I have image keys for the Safari Ltd. Dinosaur TOOBS as well.) 

In the pictured activity, I used the Farm Babies TOOB. This activity is super easy to prepare. I just printed out and laminated the page. I added the page and the matching farm animals to an inexpensive wooden tray from a hobby store. I used a small acrylic tray from Montessori Services to help organize the tray and give a fine motor activity for young children of standing the animals on the tray.

This is a great activity for young children. It can include directionality skills if the child tries to match the direction the animal is facing. This is also a wonderful language activity if you go over the names of the animals with your child or students. 

For older children, you could cut apart the names and animal pictures for a matching activity involving reading. The Safari Ltd. TOOBS with breeds of horses or dogs would be especially good for older children.

Matching Farm Animal Nomenclature Cards and Farm Animals 

This Montessori activity uses the Farm Animal Nomenclature Cards from Montessori for Everyone. The pictured activity is for young preschoolers and just uses the animal photos rather than the other parts of the 3-part cards. 

For ideas on laminating and presenting 3-part cards, check the 3-part card resources in my Montessori-Inspired Music: Peter and the Wolf Activities post. You'll find links for presenting 3-part cards for different ages and levels of ability. 

I put the layout on a large hemmed work rug from Montessori Services.

You'll find printables to continue with more advanced Montessori farm animal work in my Free Farm Printables post and Montessori-Inspired Farm Unit post. 

   

Farm Phonics Matching Activity 

This activity uses the free Farm Tot Book from 1+1+1=1. I didn't use the "S is for sheep" page and used the pages as cards. You could use whichever pages work for the miniature animals you have. I used a sandwich container from The Dollar Tree and an inexpensive plate from the grocery store.

In Montessori education, we say the phonetic sound instead of the letter name. We generally focus on lowercase letters as well. Although this has capital letters at the beginning of each sentence, you could just read each card: "/b/ is for barn" and have the child place the matching farm figure on or below the card.

You'll find more ideas for phonetic presentations as well the link to a video with the proper pronunciation of each letter's phonetic sound in case you wonder how the sounds are taught in Montessori: Inexpensive and DIY Sandpaper Letters.

Clip and Learn Farm Beginning Sounds 

 

This is another activity using a printable from 1+1+1=1: Clip & Learn Farm Beginning Sounds. I used a large plastic tray from Montessori Services. I just used the lowercase letters from the printable to attach to the clothespins. 

Younger children could put the matching animal on the animal's picture on the circle. Children who are comfortable with beginning sounds could match the clothespin to the proper picture on the circle.

Farm Mazes

For this tray, I printed out two farm mazes: Farm Maze from On the Farm {Expanded} by 2 Teaching Mommies and Farm Maze from Pre-K Farm Packs by This Reading Mama. I printed out and laminated each page and placed both pages on the tray along with a pig to move through the maze. Children who would enjoy writing could use an erasable marker. Again, I used a large plastic tray from Montessori Services.

For this tray, I printed out two farm mazes: Farm Maze from Farm Pack by 123 Homeschool 4 Me at Free Homeschool Deals and Tractor Maze from Tractor Pack by Royal Baloo.

Barn 1:1 Game 

 

This could be a fun cooperative game. See "How to Use Cooperative Games to Teach Sportsmanship" for ideas on using educational games cooperatively.

I used the Barn 1:1 printable from Pre-K Pages. I placed 20 animals in a basket on the tray along with dice for determining how many animals to place on the page. Children could take turns filling the same page until each barn has an animal.

How Many Legs Do I Have? Animal Sort

This is a simple counting activity and helps children observe differences in animals. I used How Many Legs Do I Have? Animal Picture Sort from Preschool Toolbox in Preschool Farm Activities and Ideas at Squidoo. I didn't use the pictures but used a number of different miniature animals for sorting.

Fenced-In Farm Animal Sort

This is another animal sort using Fenced In Farm Animals from Preschool Toolbox in Preschool Farm Activities and Ideas at Squidoo. For this activity, the child sorts types of animals into different shapes ("fences").

Farm Animal Spanish Matching Activity

For this activity, I used the Farm Animals/Animales de Granja printable (Farm Animals Spanish Flash Cards) from The Bilingual Homeschool. You could use this activity in a number of ways, depending on the age and ability of the child. It could be a simple introduction to the Spanish names of animals, or it could be used as a reading activity for older children.

More Free Printables 

Go to my post at Living Montessori Now for links to more farm freebies from around the blogosphere: Free Farm Printables and Montessori-Inspired Farm Activities Using Replicas and Printables.

More Montessori-Inspired Farm Activities

For more Montessori-inspired farm activities, see my Montessori Grammar Farm and Montessori-Inspired Farm Unit posts. On Tuesday, I'll have an inexpensive version of a Montessori grammar farm. Have a fun summer!
 

Deb Chitwood is a certified Montessori teacher with a master’s degree in Early Childhood Studies from Sheffield Hallam University in Sheffield, England. Deb taught in Montessori schools in Iowa and Arizona before becoming owner/director/teacher of her own Montessori school in South Dakota. Later, she homeschooled her two children through high school. Deb is now a Montessori writer who lives in Colorado Springs with her husband of 38 years and their cat of 12 years. She blogs at Living Montessori Now. 

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