Farmers Market Dramatic Play With Art and Paint Projects

Farm in the dramatic play or pretend play center is a TON of fun for students! As you know, I Beloved the pretend center, and I also enjoy having students take a role in setting it up. The kids (and I) are having a blast and learning a ton. If you want to do information technology in your classroom, head over to my TPT shop and check out Subcontract Dramatic Play.

Remember, every classroom and twelvemonth is different. Some years the kids practise a lot and other times I practise more of it. It just depends.

The dramatic play middle provides so many learning opportunities across ALL learning domains. To help parents understand that kids are not just "playing", I sent home a parent letter of the alphabet introducing the new subcontract theme and highlighting specific skills students volition be developing during their play.

To begin the new farm theme, I put out tons of non-fiction books near life on the farm. We create an Idea Chart/Spider web. I task the students to "enquiry" using the books (aka look at the photos). Nosotros hash out what farm animals, supplies, places, people, and food is on a subcontract. I use post-information technology notes so they will stick to the chart. Information technology likewise shows me students' prior knowledge and any misconceptions they may accept. By bound, students know exactly what to practise to create the web! They got busy right away. I even had a few students who wanted to go on working on the spider web during our Friday dance political party! You know they are excited about a new theme when they laissez passer upwardly a trip the light fantastic party! On the Friday we earlier a new theme, I add the idea web to my lesson plans. Information technology gets the students excited for the next theme. Students can assist me take downward the last dramatic play center so when nosotros come up on Monday it is ready for us to start creating!

*When I taught half-day preschool, often times nosotros did not have time to brand thought webs.*

Hither is what I did to create the center, and what it looked like before it was set up for play. You lot can come across students painted the apple, plants, and corn stalks. Expect at finished murals! I Dearest that students made them and not me. I am not an artist. and I know it! Yes, information technology would have been faster if I did information technology (and cleaner), simply that's not the point of this activity. Most chiefly, the students took charge, painted the murals, and now their fine art is in the center! They know that I value their work; isn't information technology astonishing?! Don't be agape for information technology not to expect perfect. Two of my 3-year-olds painted the orchard tree, and it turned out awesome!

On Mon and Tuesday during heart fourth dimension, students painted murals and made other parts of the farm instead of engaging in pretend play. I showed students the signs/pictures of what they were going to paint, and together we noticed the characteristics of each found Earlier they painted. Students only painted the stems and the leaves on the plants.

In the art center and for a table time activity on Tuesday morning, students made the fruits and veggies for our subcontract! It was a fun way to get some cut practice in.

I stapled the Velcro to the wall (plants) and stuck the other side of the Velcro to the fruits and veggies. Now students can harvest the fruits and veggies during play!

Here is what students did to create the centre. They had it prepare to play by the middle of the week. It was and then rewarding to see it take shape!

Hay! A farm has a lot of hay. I have some friends who needed more practise cutting long lines so this was the perfect activity for them. I copied the "hay" (lined newspaper) on yellow paper and students cut on the long lines to make the hay. They glued it to shoeboxes (I covered in yellow paper) to make the hay bales, and then glued information technology to the bottom of the craven house. To create the lesser, students used a slice of xanthous affiche board and glued straw to it. Lastly, it is covered with thick plastic tape (I kept it and however reuse it every year for various things in the pretend center).

In one case your students get used to making virtually of what you lot need in the center, they volition start coming up with what they need for play, how to get in, and what supplies they will need to complete the project. This was the first theme this twelvemonth,; I just gave them the materials, minimal instructions and let them do information technology. It was the neatest experience! I had a educatee already tell me he wanted to make a pond, ducks, and fish next!

Farm Animals! I did not take big farm animals for the subcontract so I had the kids brand them! I made the patterns, but I had the students cut them out and decorate them. Do yous see the cow with stripes like a zebra and eyelashes? Super beautiful and so unique!

Look at their cute chickens and chicks in the craven coop! The nests are just paper numberless folded down. The eggs we made with Model Magic that I pulled out from the baker theme we did before. The farmer can collect the eggs during play!

The pig pen! A kiddo told me he needed brown paper to make the mud. He crumbled it up into balls and put it in the plastic tub. If yous are wondering how the animals are standing, I volition share my trick with yous. I taped blocks to the back of each animate being.

Writing! I take my pre-k kids audio out the words for the signs. It was an arrival activity in the morning time. They too sounded out the words for the shelf labels. Sometimes I can find time to take the kids make signs, and some years we just don't have the time.

My iii- and four-year-onetime friends made dirt for their arrival activity the same morning. They cut strips of brown butcher newspaper and crumbled it up. My grade opens at 7 am and kids trickle in. I always take an arrival action on the table that they have to consummate before they get play in centers. So use the "dirt" to encompass their "seeds" (rocks) when they are planting seeds in the vegetable garden.

They can too plow the field with the tractor and water the seeds. We made the tractor by painting a box and cutting a pigsty in the tiptop of it. The hose is just a slice of a real hose from my house that was broken. Do yous meet the carrots and potatoes they hid in the clay? Afterwards, they pretended to pull them out of the basis! This photo was from my full-day classroom.

To add a writing component, farmers can write and draw "to-do" lists earlier they become out in the field.

To support students' dramatic play, I created a office chart. It has picture icons for the things the farmer can do. This is VERY helpful to some of my kids who don't know what to practice in the dramatic play centre. The flick icons are stuck with Velcro so students can remove them if they want to.

For kids who like or need a visual schedule, I fabricated a visual schedule of a farmer'south day.

During small group Wednesday and to support their dramatic play, we created a chart during circle time of all the things a farmer does on a farm. Each student wrote the first letter of the idea they shared.

Goodness! That was a LONG mail for certain. Can you tell how much I love and believe in the ability of pretend play?

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Take the FARM theme all over your classroom! Get bank check out my favorite Subcontract Math, Stem, and Literacy Centers and Farm Themed Art and Sensory Activities! All of these are tried and truthful activities I love to do in my own classroom!