Help develop your preschooler’s language skills with FREE farm animal printables! It’s easy and effective, but best of all, it takes literally no prep work at all!
Be sure to grab your FREE farm animal printables at the end of this post!
FREE Farm Animal Printables for Preschool Farm Theme
One of the things that can be so frustrating about teaching preschoolers is their developing language skills. They come to you still learning how to form words clearly, how to communicate their needs and wants, and let’s face it…they also have to learn how to speak kindly, too.
But here’s the thing. There are multiple ways to develop a preschooler’s language skills. In fact, I’ve written an oral language preschool curriculum, and this is one of our favorite, albeit simple, activities that I do with my preschoolers to help them develop their skills.
Now, adding some free farm animal printables is just a bonus because preschoolers are naturally curious about farm animals. That means they already like talking and learning about them, so it makes perfect sense to use farm animal printables, pictures and games to keep those preschoolers talking and working on their language skills.
Farm Animal Activities to Develop Language
All you need for any of these farm activities is a set of farm animal pictures. I actually used these cards, but I also have these farm animal nomenclature cards, too! (And this post is a huge resource for farm animal printables, too.)
Language Development Activities Using Free Farm Animal Printables
Our favorite activity is to make matches. Using one of the farm animal printables listed above or below, and a set of Toob or other farm animal toys, invite your preschooler to make matches.
Speaking of similarities and differences, you can invite your preschooler to pick two cards and share things that are the same about the two farm animals as well as what is different.
My three-year-old likes making the animal noises as he lines up multiples of farm animals on each card. Here, my son is lining up “Mama sheepeds and the baby sheepeds.” This helps him develop his language skills as he gets to practice language sounds, and when he inappropriately says “sheeps”, I kindly correct him to say, “sheep”.
Preschoolers also enjoy being quizzed, for lack of a better term, about the farm animals. I ask my preschoolers to point to the animals’ body parts and label them myself when the preschooler isn’t sure. For younger preschoolers and even young toddlers, this modeling is a top strategy by experts.
This is a rooster (pointing to it). Please point to the rooster.
The rooster has long tail feathers. See me point to them? Can you show me the roosters tail feathers?
The rooster’s mouth is called a beak. It’s hard. See the beak here? You can point to the beak.
The rooster has claws on his feet. Look at his claws. Please point to the rooster’s feet. Can you find his claws now?
Where is the rooster?
After each question, I ask the child to say the word. Rooster, as he points. Tail, as he points. Beak, and he points.
More FREE Farm Animal Printables
The above activities can be done with just about any farm animal pictures. Here are some more free farm animal printables that can be used well, plus some other fun printable farm activities your preschoolers will enjoy.
15 FREE Farm Theme Printables
Peek-a-Book Farm Animals
Farm Themed Old Maid Card Game
Farm Animal Printable Pattern Cards
Montessori Farm Printables
Farm Animal Skip Counting Puzzles
Need More Activities for Your Farm Theme Lesson Plans?
I’ve put all my BEST farm activities in a single place, making it extra easy for you to do your preschool lesson planning. Be sure to grab all the free printables while you’re there, too. Click the link below!
REMEMBER MY ORAL LANGUAGE CURRICULUM?
You can see them below. Just click on the image. But you might also be interested in my other preschool literacy lesson plans, too, or grab all entire preschool literacy curriculum in a bundle!
I am Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home mama of five! I am the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught range of levels, including preschool and college, and a little bit of just about everything in between. Right now, my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction
I really appreciate all of the instructions you include on these. It goes well beyond my E-I-E-I-O.