The first day, we explored a barn and met the animal families who live inside- bulls, cows and calves; billy goats, nanny goats and kids; stallions, mares and foals. Throughout the unit, we'll meet more animal families and we're keeping track of them in a chart on our wall to keep them all straight! We'll also meet these families when we go out into the barnyard:
Pigs: boars / sows / piglets
Chickens: rooster / hen / chick
Ducks: drake / duck / duckling
Sheep: ram / ewe / lamb
To practice the names of the animals we've met, we sing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" and pull out a toy animal from the bag Ms. Marianne has. We don't just say "horse" though... we have to decide which family member the animal is and then we continue singing the song! This helps us to sort and identify by animal species, size and characteristics (like the fact that a bull has horns, but a cow has an udder!) We like to pair up the Mommies and Babies a lot. :) It was fun to play with the animals in the barn scene and then the farm toys when we were done creating our farmyard scene with the song. We worked together to play so that all of us were happy... this isn't always easy when some of us want to make the cows jump over the fences that others are using to build the animal pens :) but we eventually made it work for all of us!
We also used picture sequencing cards to talk about the life cycle of a cow and what cows are used for. Ms. Marianne filled a glove with water and we "milked" the "udder" into a bucket- like real farmers do! It reminded us of when we visited Vertruccio Farms for our Fall Field Trip and pretended to milk their wooden cow. This was way cooler though- because liquid actually came out of the soft "udder" and we were able to squirt each other with the tiny streams of it and be silly as we learned! By the way- milking a cow isn't as easy as it looks!! It was tricky to get our fingers to squeeze and pull the liquid down just right. 
Our stories this week were The Cow Who Clucked, by Denise Fleming- which was about a cow who lost her Moo and went from farm animal to farm animal searching for it. (She and the hen had traded sounds somehow!); Dooby Dooby Moo, by Doreen Cronin & Betsey Lewin- about singing farm animals that sneak past their farmer (all the farm animal stories by these ladies are so cute and totally worth checking out!); and The Farmyard Surprise, by Eve Bunting- about a celebration of new life on the farm.
For math, we continued to practice counting to 50 and tried to 100 by ourselves too! We are still working with the Teen numbers- counting to, recognizing and writing them. On our first day of preschool this week, we worked together to measure ourselves with Duplo blocks and recorded our results. Then we illustrated a picture to go with our measurement sentence. Some of us even tried to use patterning as we placed the blocks alongside our friends. It didn't always work, since not all of us were on the same page (haha!) but hey, at least we are using what we've learned, right? We also have been working with basic addition and subtraction too. To practice our subtraction, we used a gumball machine to create number sentences using the teen numbers. It was fun to use actual gumballs and then chew one when we were done!We worked all week long on sorting animals into families and practicing their names. With a little help from Ms. Marianne, we wrote about our favorite farm animals and illustrated the pages. In addition to the life cycle of a cow, we learned the life cycle of a chicken. Some of us were a little intrigued by the idea that the eggs we eat could potentially be a baby chicken! But we talked about how animals provide so much for us nutrition and diet wise- we're really grateful for them.
We had a blast in our Egg Race outside after we learned about Barnyard Animals. It was tricky keeping those eggs on the spoons as we raced to the finish line, but oh so fun!
We made some "Muddy Pigs" for Art...
and some "Cotton Ball Sheep" too!
Our Down on the Farm Unit will culminate with a trip to Schnepf Farms (see link for directions) on this coming Thursday, May 8th from 9am-12pm. Please bring snacks or a sack lunch and water and don't forget to wear sunscreen and a hat! We will be able to pick vegetables in their fields ($1.50 a pound to purchase once they're picked), play in their play areas, ride the hay & train rides (if available) and go to the petting zoo to see all the animals we've been learning so much about! Their website is also boasting about their peaches- some of which are available now for purchase, and we can get peach pies / peach cinnamon rolls / peach salsas and more in their store. Yummm!
Please let Ms. Marianne know if you will be joining us for the Farm Visit. That way we can make sure we wait at the gate for everyone, or she can drive me in her car if need be. Parents can feel free to leave at any point- this will be a casual field trip where we will loosely stick together as a group, but we can wander as families at our leisure! It should be a blast and I can't wait!!
Love,
Your Child
and
Ms. Marianne
