One of my favorite things to offer my preschoolers are small world play settings. Autumn is the perfect time to invite preschoolers to a farm and tractor small world, as the seasons are changing and farmers are out harvesting their fields. Small worlds are amazing, hands-on farm theme activities to add to your fall activities for preschool, or you can even consider a whole farm preschool theme!
Hands On Farm Theme Activities
We first used this farm small world at the end of a 3-week farm theme. My preschoolers spent three weeks learning about farms, tractors, and harvesting, so this was the perfect way to close our unit. One of the greatest advantages of using small world play at the end of a thematic unit is that it allows children the opportunity to use the new knowledge and vocabulary they have learned.
I intended to take down the farm life small world after a few days, but I was so pleased with the response that I left it available to my students for a few more weeks after! The children loved engaging in the dramatic play, and I loved seeing how much they had learned!
Frequently Asked Questions about a Preschool Farm Theme
The best way to explain farm to kids is with a preschool farm theme! Kids will love visiting a local farm, if possible, and seeing the animals, equipment, and the crops. Read farm books and sing songs about farms and farm animals.
Use lots of fun farm themed activities to teach! There are farm sensory bins, alphabet and literacy activities, and math activities. You can also include science activities by talking about seeds and plants.
There are so many preschool farm theme activities you can include in your lesson plans! Learning activities should include a variety of activities from each content area, like farm theme sensory play, art, math, science, and literacy. Printable activities are very popular for teaching math and literacy especially! You can even provide some farm animal costumes or masks for pretend play.
A popular place to start is by teaching the names of farm animals and the sounds they make. You can use stuffed animals, pictures, or even a few live animals as models.
One of our favorite ways to teach is through music. There are lots of farm and farm animal songs, and they are a great way to reinforce the names of the animals and their sounds! Don’t miss the classic Old MacDonald Had a Farm.
Small World Play
Materials
- tractor toys
- small farm animal toys
- acrylic pumpkins
- green and blue felt
- burlap scraps
- autumn dyed rice
- small containers to be troughs
- floral rocks
- full length mirror (optional)
Setup
The first time we did this activity, I began by setting a full length mirror on the preschool table to serve as our play space. I love setting up invitations to play on mirrors! It adds another depth of dimension for the children to explore.
Another advantage is that a full length mirror creates obvious boundaries, but since it runs the length of the preschool table, the children can sit at the table and there is plenty of space for everyone to play at once. I love these mirrors that are split into four parts, so you can spread the learning fun out a little bit for a larger class.
But this activity can easily be done without a full length mirror too. Just set it up on a low table.
I cut some green felt to represent a pasture and cut blue for a pond. The burlap scraps made a nice defined space for a field to be harvested. Small rocks added a nice decorative element, and the dyed rice served as grains that had been harvested. I scattered the acrylic pumpkins around the farm setting, also to be harvested.
Then I put out the tractors and farm animals and invited the class to come play! The only restriction I gave the children was that the materials were to stay on the mirror, and that the rocks could be moved, but not dropped, for fear of breaking the mirror.
Playing with the Farm and Tractor Small World
The children sat down and immediately began playing. This small world play setting was a time when I was able to sit back, observe, and take notes on my students’ learning. They didn’t need any direction from me, as the previous three weeks of our farm unit had prepared them for some amazing self guided playful learning.
The children played in different ways. Some students retold stories from picture books we had read together, like tractors pulling animals out of the pond (inspired by the book Otis.) I’ve included a list of all our favorite farm books at the end of this post!
Some of the children played by themselves, while others worked collaboratively. I noticed that the children were reenacting all the things they had learned during our unit. The play included tractors harvesting fields of wheat (rice) and pumpkins, milking a cow, animals breaking out of the pasture, and many other imaginative things!
What I was most impressed by was the use of language and new vocabulary the children used as they played with this farm activity for preschool. They used the words harvest and pasture, foal and dairy, fertilizer and field, among many other terms. That use of new language was enough for me to know that this small world play was well worth the time the children spent playing!
More Hands On Farm Theme Activities for Young Children
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Farm Preschool Centers$10.00 -
Pumpkin Activity Pack$5.00 -
Food and Nutrition Activity Pack$5.00
Our Favorite Farm Books
We read so many great farm books during our theme, and I was amazed to see how much the class retained from them! I’m a huge fan of literacy and reading tons of books to my class, and it was a nice opportunity to see the results in such a visible way. Here are some of our favorites!
Hands On Farm Theme Activities
A farm and tractor small world provides imaginative play and learning during a preschool farm theme.
Materials
- tractor toys
- small farm animal toys
- acrylic pumpkins
- green and blue felt
- burlap scraps
- autumn-colored dyed rice
- small containers (to use as troughs)
- floral or river rocks
Tools
- full length mirror (optional)
Instructions
- Set out a full length mirror.
- Cut some green felt to represent a pasture, some blue felt to represent a pond, and place them on the mirror.
- Set out some burlap scraps to act as fields.
- Scatter the acrylic pumpkins around the farm, waiting to be harvested.
- Add fall-colored dyed rice to the fields to act as grains.
- Set out the tractors, small animals, and troughs.
- Invite your children to play!
Notes
Using a mirror in the setup adds another depth of dimension for the children to explore. Another advantage is that a full length mirror creates obvious boundaries, but since it runs the length of the preschool table, the children can sit at the table and there is plenty of space for everyone to play at once.
The only restriction I gave the children was that the materials were to stay on the mirror, and that the rocks could be moved, but not dropped, for fear of breaking the mirror.
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I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m 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 a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of 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.
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