Small Group Activities for the Month of: March
Thematic/Literature Based Unit: The Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Create a farm scene
bulletin board. Have the
students help paint the
barn red, the pasture green
and the pond blue.
Paint a refrigerator-sized
box red to make a class
barn.
Milk the cow. Make a pin
hole in the fingertip of a
latex glove and fill with
milk. Hang the glove from
a picture of a cow.
Make milk shakes.
Make butter by pouring a
small amount of cream
into baby food jars. Have
the children shake the jars
until the cream thickens.
Make paper plate pig
faces. Paint a paper plate
pink. Then glue on precut
shapes for the eye, nose
and mouth.
Finger paint with chocolate
pudding “mud” then add
cut out pink pigs to the
picture to make “Pigs in
the Mud.”
Make grazing horses.
Have the children go
outside to collect grass.
Glue the grass onto a
picture of a horse
Make hobbyhorses by
stuffing socks with
newspaper and fastening
them around the ends of
yardsticks with
rubberbands. Add button
eyes and yarn for the
mane.
Make handprint chickens.
Have the children make
yellow or white
handprints. Add
fingerprints to make the
eyes, comb and feet of the
chicken.
Have the children select
their favorite farm animal.
Graph the results.
Give students a cow cut
from white butcher paper.
Have the children add the
brown markings to the cow
by dabbing with bingo
markers.
Make muddy pigs. Give
each child a pig shape cut
out of pink paper. Using
brown finger paint, have
the children use their
fingers to apply the “mud.”
Have the children identify
animal sounds from a tape.
Make Pigs in a Blanket.
Give each child ¼ of a hot
dog and triangle shape
crescent dough. Roll hot
dog in the dough and cook
until done.
To make handprint sheep
have the students make
black handprints then glue
cotton balls along the
thumb and little finger to
make ears. Add eyes and a
mouth to complete the
sheep.
Make a class book about
the visit to the farm.
Give the students a cut out
of a chicken. Have them
glue feathers to the
chicken.
Play musical farm animals.
Tape pictures of farm
animals to the floor and
when the music stops the
child must stand on the
animal and name it.
To make sponge print
chicks have the children
make a large sponge print
circle for the body and a
small circle for the head.
Add eyes and a beak with
construction paper.
Make red barns from milk
cartons. Paint the cartons
red then cut doors and
windows.
Make cotton ball sheep.
Provide the students with a
sheep pattern. Have them
glue cotton balls on the
body.
Go on a field trip to a
farm.
Play farm animal bingo.
Make collages of farm
animals using magazine
pictures, stickers and
stamps.
Slopnick/Hurley 2001