If you know our family, then you know my son is obsessed with farms and wants to be a farmer when he grows up. Unsurprisingly, we do a lot of farm play. Here are some of our recent farm- themed plays from this fall. We do all kinds of farm play including sensory, small world and dramatic play.
- Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch Sensory Play
Nothing says “fall” like a trip to a corn maze and pumpkin patch – so I thought it would be fun to make a small world sensory tray on this theme.
We have many farm resources, but I don’t have a corn maze so I made one with cardboard, pasta and shredded paper. I cut out a large square of cardboard and then glued rigatoni pasta to the cardboard in a maze shape. Once the pastas were secure, I stuffed each piece with some shredded paper and ribbon packing material I had saved.
The sensory mix is also DIY. It’s a mixture of rice, beans, lentils and pumpkin shaped pasta from Homesense. I painted a few swirly pastas green, but the rest is natural.
The kids definitely approved of this play and spent a few hours harvesting pumpkins and making their “houses” in the barn tray and the corn maze (filling them with rice mix and putting the straw ‘roof’ on top). As a bonus, it got them very excited to go visit a corn maze in person.
- All felt (sheet mats, scare crow, pumpkins, sunflowers, yellow balls) – Sewing Seeds Play (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
- Resin pumpkins – Crafty Minds Collection
- Wooden Barn Tray – Carved Together Co
- Tuff Tray – Scholar’s Choice (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY15)
- Corn maze and sensory filler – DIY
2. Farmers’ Market Dramatic Play
We do a new dramatic play set up about once a month, usually with the play kitchen. The kids never seem to tire of their play kitchen, so we’ve dedicated a fairly large portion of our playroom to it.
This September, we played Farmers’ Market! This was an easy one to set up, since we already had the food (except for the DIY potatoes – thanks Mom). I just added some printables from The PreK Mama.
The main reason I do these dramatic play/ pretend play setups is because my kids love them and have a ton of fun with them, but there are also many learning and developmental benefits from dramatic play.
– it teaches self-regulation,
– encourages language development,
– teaches conflict resolution,
– encourages math and literacy development,
– relieves emotional tension,
– and is empowering to children.
Those are more than enough reasons to make it an important part of our play.
- Farmers’ Market Dramatic Play printables – The PreK Mama
- Felt carrots, apples and felt ball “berries” – Sewing Seeds Play (saves with code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
- Potatoes and strawberries are DIY (made by my mom)
- Harvest baskets – Dollarama
- Scale – Amazon
- Play food from IKEA, Jellycat, Melissa and Doug and Papoose, and wooden apples from The Maple Mouse Sensory Shop
3. Farm Small World Invitation to Play
Since the barn toys are always out anyway, I thought I might as well set them out for extra easy access. It makes it easier for the kids to find what pieces they need and I also find it easier to cleanup.
Sometimes the kids play with the scene on top of the toy shelf and other times they remove the toys and set up their own small world play scenes. This little small world invitation to play was set up in our playroom for most of the fall.
4. Farm Harvest Playdough
On National Play-doh Day in September we had some playdough fun – farm style using our super squishy and sparkly Magic Dough from Kidfolk & Co.
Playdough is such a favourite here. The kids just love it and it’s so good for their fine motor skills development. It’s also easy to tailor to whatever theme interests your kids. In this case, I added a resin barn tray and some resin fruits and vegetables to “harvest”.
My 4 year old son (who wants to be a farmer when he grows up) was all about harvesting the food in this activity, whereas my 6 year old daughter was more interested in building a strawberry dough house. I love the open-ended nature of playdough and how it lends itself to all imaginations.
- Magic Dough, Green Tractor Tray, On-the-Farm Mini Eco-Cutter set, Jumbo Resin Tractor – Kidfolk & Co. (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY15)
- Resin barn, fence and hay bales – Olive Eve and Co.
- Mini resin fruits from Amazon
5. Rooster Play-based Learning
My son’s favourite animal is the rooster. When I mentioned to Carved Together Co. a rooster tray might be a fun idea, they not only made it- they consulted us in the design. This is without a doubt why I love shopping small.
We’ve been having a lot of fun with this tray and one of the things we’ve loved doing is making different rooster breed sensory art using dried goods. While designing the roosters, we talked about different breeds, the difference between chickens and roosters and the parts of a chicken/ rooster.
I’m always interested to see how my kids react to a setup like this. At times they were very focused on the learning opportunities provided and other times they came up with their own learning ideas. For example, my son (of course) was very interested in learning about roosters. My daughter took the Grapat measurement tool, nesting eggs and coloured rice to explore size and dimension. Then she made a rice soup. I love when they come up with their own ideas.
- Rooster Wood Tray – Carved Together Co.
- Chicken Unit Study printables – Montessori Farmer
- Felt Sheet Mats, Grapat tools – Sewing Seeds Play (save with HOUSEOFPLAY10)
- Wooden Letter Blocks – AW and Co. (save with HOUSEOFPLAY0) via Wonder + Kind Shop (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
6. Farm Small World Sensory Tuff Tray
I get A LOT of requests for farm activities and this is an easy setup strategy I use often. I fill up most of a Tuff Tray with felt mats and then add one bag of sensory mix to the tray. It’s enough filler for a sensory experience, but keeps cleanup simple and straightforward. Then, I add my son’s farm toys (or ask him to help me add the toys!) and that’s it. It takes about 5 mins to set up.
- Felt sheet mats, felt sunflower – Sewing Seeds Play (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
- Zooble Toys Large green landscape mat – Wonder + Kind Shop (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
- Tractor sensory tray and On the Farm Sensory Filler – Kidfolk & Co (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY15)
- Shelter made with Guidecraft Notch Blocks
- Animals are mostly Schleich
- Tuff Tray – Scholar’s Choice (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY15)
7. Farm Sensory Play 🌾
Sometimes our farm sensory play is smaller and focuses on a few things, like a sparkly new tractor tray and some bright and fun farm-themed sensory mix. Scooping and pouring sensory materials can be just as much fun on a small scale. My son loved loading up his little tractor with sensory filler and moving it around the bin.
- Tractor Sensory Tray, Resin Jumbo Tractor, On the Farm Sensory Bin Filler, Resin, charms, and mini eco cutter from Farm Surprise Jar – Kidfolk and Co. (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY15)
- Wooden Barn Tray – Carved Together Co.
- Within and Co. Flexible Faux-Leather mat/bin (Signature 55 Mat) – Sewing Seeds Play (save with HOUSEOFPLAY10).
So those were our farm highlights from this fall. Check back in a few months to see how we explored farms during winter. lol.