Farm Animal Collage

What You Need:

• Paper
• Markers
• Glue
• Magazines or catalogs with farm animal images
• Green and yellow yarn
• Scissors

What You Do:

1. Ask your child to draw a picture of a big barn. Let her design the barn any way she wishes. It's best to see what she envisions a barn to look like, so you can talk about why she added certain elements.
2. Ask her to draw what kinds of animals she thinks live in a barn. See what she come up with! If she needs help, give her clues such as "I'm an animal that says 'moo'," for instance. See if she can get at least five farm animals on her barn drawing.
3. Gather some magazines such as My Big Backyard or National Geographic Kids. Help your child identify and cut out pictures of animals that live on a farm. Glue them to the barn. Your child should now have a collage of animals both drawn and from magazines living in her barn.
4. Your child can add more touches to her farm by cutting and gluing down the green and yellow yarn to make grass and hay.
5. Encourage your child to name her farm, then talk with your child about farms and how important they are to our existence. Mention what foods animals eat, how milk comes from cows, how chickens lay eggs, and so forth. You may have to brush up on some farm knowledge yourself!