Farm and farm animals are a year-round theme at our house. My 3 year old son loves all things farm, so we do a lot of farm-related activities. Today, I’m sharing a few of our favourites.
1. Small World Farm Sensory Tray
One of our favourite farm activities is to make a big small world tray. My son likes watching YouTube videos of people setting up farm dioramas and they usually use sand as the base. He kept asking for sand so I thought I’d try it. I didn’t have enough Kinetic Sand to fill the whole tray, so I paired it with some plastic grass mats (very easy to rinse off) and some dry corn.
Although it was very messy, the kids also really loved it so I felt the mess was worth it. I had to spend some time at the end straining the corn out of the kinetic sand, but otherwise everything cleaned-up pretty easily.
Materials
- Tuff Tray (Scholar’s Choice)
- Barn (Fisher-Price)
- Animals, Tractor & Chicken Coop (Schleich)
- Fences (Ostheimer from Nest.ca)
- Felt bee, beehive, ladybug & butterfly (Sewing Seeds Play – save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
- Kinetic Sand (Amazon)
- Grass Mats (Dollarama)
- Dry Corn (Bulk Barn)
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2. Farm Sensory Tray – Version 2
We’ve also done another version of a farm small world with a variety of different dry goods. This one had lots of different textures to explore and was less messy.
This tray was very good at representing different areas of a farm and lots of space to make up stories and scenes with the animals.
Materials
- Tuff Tray (Scholar’s Choice)
- Barn (Fisher-Price)
- Animals & Chicken Coop (Schleich)
- Fences (Ostheimer from Nest.ca)
- Felt Pond (Sewing Seeds Play)
- Dry Goods: Cereal, corn, split peas, ground up cereal, lentils and spaghetti
- Grimm’s wood stacking bowls
3. Little Blue Truck Play
The Little Blue Truck series is a favourite in our house. We have many of the books, so I thought it would be fun to set up a little farm landscape where the kids could act out scenes from the book or make up their own stories with their favourite characters. The kids know these books well, so it was fairly easy for them to translate the book into play.
Materials
- Great Outdoors Storyboard Starter Pack, Storyboard Trofast Insert, Farm Animal Play Pieces (Eye Spy Club)
- Meadow Mix with Hand-painted Butterflies (The Creative Mix Shop)
- Felt beehive, bee, worms, ladybug, Within & Co Mat ( Sewing Seeds Play – save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
- Tara Treasures Farm Barn Bag ( Mymy and Me)
- Plan Toys Blue Truck
4. Muddy Oobleck
Oobleck is one of our favourite messy substances. If you’ve never tried it, you really need to. It’s a suspension, so when you compress it in your hand – it firms up and when you release pressure on it – it drips back into a liquid form. Pretty magical. It’s made of cornstarch and water (so also very easy to make and economical), but if you add some cocoa powder, it looks like mud. You don’t need many accessories for this activity – just some animals to get muddy and a bowl of soapy water to clean them. You can also include sponges, brushes and other tools for scooping and squirting. My 3 year old son’s favourite thing about this activity was the turkey baster. He found sucking up and squirting the water to be hilarious.
One of the best parts of Oobleck is after it dries you, you can use it again. Just add water and it will turn back into mud.
Muddy Oobleck Recipe
- 2 cups cornstarch
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1+ cup of water (I usually have to add a bit more water)
Activity Materials
- Oobleck
- Schleich animals
- Turkey baster, ladle, sponges, brush
- Boon Baby bottle drying rack and flower (Amazon)
*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
5. Farm Themed Bath – Washing Vegetables and Fruit
And finally, we love a farm-themed bath. I wanted to try something a bit different, so I decided to use our Yellow Door Education fruits and vegetable stones and cover them in bath paint to make them look dirty. I wasn’t 100% sure how this activity would go, but it turned out fantastic! The kids scrubbed the food clean, painted it again, and repeated on an endless loop. And then the best part – they got so into cleaning that they cleaned the entire bath and surrounding walls! Needless to say, we’ll be doing this again next time the bath needs a clean.
Materials
- Yellow Door Education Sensory Sound Eggs, Fruit and Pizza Toppings (Sewing Seeds Play – save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10 and Scholar’s Choice)
- Bath Paint (Amazon)
- Bath caddy (Dollarama)
- Strainer (Dollarama)
- Scrub brush and sponges
*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
BONUS ACTIVITY: Rainbow Barns Colour Sort & Count
My go-to combination for a very easy sensory activity setup is to take one of our toys and pair it with a sensory mix. The kids love it because it gives the toy a new and fresh feel.
The Guidecraft Barnyard Activity Boxes are a favourite in our house. They are so fun for colour sorting and counting. I set them out with some coloured pasta (from Bulk Barn) and tweezers to make searching for the farm pieces a little more challenging and fun. Of course, the tractor had to join in on the fun. It’s such an easy set up that promotes fine motor skills, colour sorting and counting.
