Theme - Farm Animals Theme

Pigs are so cute. What a great and different idea! Okay, hmmmm.....

Reading board: Make stacks of pigs. Title it "Pile O' Pigs!" For each ten books, they earn a pig. Stand them on the other pigs back. Then they could see who has the highest pig tower.

Good Work: "Ms. /Mr. ___ is HOGGING all the good work!"

Behavior Managment: Make a big pond where all the "piglets" are. If they get a warning, they move their pig to the edge of the pond. If they get in trouble again, they move their pig out of the pond. The final time, they send their pig to the barn.

Helper Board: Make little corn on the cobs for the job names and give each student a little pig with their name to rotate. "Jobs on the Cobs" came to mind first, but really just made me laugh... how about "

Year-Long Project: With everyone doing Flat Stanley now, I am going to create a rhinoceros called "Runner the Rhino" who is going to run all over the U.S. via mail and e-mail to teach the kids about geography. How about the same project for you only call him "Rooter-The Pig on the Run" because pigs root around so much. He could root around the U.S. finding out info. Put up a map in your classroom and pin tiny paper pigs where Rooter has gone.

Welcome board: This is kinda crazy, but what about "Lots of Pig-caso" (like Picasso) Give every student a blank pig to decorate with the design of their choice. It might be fun to see what they come up with. They can sign their name below their pig.

Nametags: Use clipart and put a big pig with the students names.

Hope this helps! On a humorous note, I could never use this theme, as when I was 5 years old, I was looking at some newborn piglets on my grandpa's farm and I slipped and fell into the pig pond. Talk about bad memories of pigs. That's pretty much why I steered clear of creating a reading corner with a fence and a pond theme. Funny the memories creating themes bring back. Well, at least you know I have first-hand knowledge of pigs.

COWS:
BULLETIN BOARDS:
Welcome: "WELCOME TO (NAME's) HERD!" with a big barn and
fence
Reading: Make a take off of the "Drink Milk, It does a body
good!" and do something with "Reading...it does a brain good!"
Student information: "In the Mooooos (instead of news)
Behavior Managment: A good visual would be to make a barn
where each student has a cow. Move the cow outside of the
barn for a warning, and farther from the barn for each
infraction.
Student of the Week: "Someone to MOOOOO about!"
Calendar/Daily Information: "MOOVIN' THROUGH THE YEAR!"
Excellent Work: MOOOOOOOOVELOUS WORK!
REWARD COUPONS: Call them "Moo Money"
CLASS GOAL: Put up a large cow and add spots to him for a
class reward. Or make a paper milk jug and add white paper
strips to slowly fill it up
ABSENT STUDENTS: Make a folder with a picture of a sad
looking cow... "Moo Hoo, We missed you!" to store missed
assignments in for when they return.
JOBS CHART: Make little cows for each student. Put up green
paper and sprigs of grass. Write jobs on clothespins and
glue up. Rotate cows. Label it "Helpin' Out in the Pasture!
COMPUTER BACKGROUND: Put a picture of a cow!

Maybe use other farm elements to add....
MORNING ACTIVITY: Call it the "Rooster Call"
READING CORNER: Call it the "Barnyard" and put a paper white
picket fence on the wall, some nice carpet, cowprint pillows,
and several pictures of cows (and other farm animals on the
wall.)

I borrowed the idea of having a COW each week. The letters COW stand for Challenge of the Week. It could be a curriculum challenge or a physicall challenge...like tying your shoes....

There are plenty of ways to use it. I am using it with fourth graders this year and my COWS are various math activities.

How about a bulletin board with "Moo-velous work" as a title? You could make "'til the cows come home" your catch phrase, such as "Let's read (write, draw, think, do math, etc) til the cows come home!" 2nd graders will be old enough near the end of the year to do some research about different types of cows. You could do a unit on milk...it does a body good...incorporated with health or gym. These are just off the top of my head. I hope this helped a little!

Why don't you incorporate the book, Cick,Clack, Moo...It's hilarious...about cows who write about poor living/working conditions...it's a picture book'so it would work independently (reading) in a center.You could do something as simple as a book report or why not challenge kids to write about class conditions...If you put a typewriter in the center, or used the computer,you follow the spirit of the book...Have fun!

Hi Dawn,

A teacher freind of mine does the farm theme..... I like her discipline system that she keeps on her wall. She has a green pasture where all the children have a horse with their name on it at the beginning of each day. This represents an A in conduct. She then has three corrals that are fenced in different colors. If a child misbehaves their horse is moved into the corrals with time-out taken from recess(B,C,D). At the end of the row is a barn if the child's horse is moved into the barn that is an F in conduct for the day. A real cute system. Oh, she has letters above it that say "We Don't Horse Around"
I know she has lots of other animal bulletin boards... I'll post again after i talk with her!

I did a farm theme last year. I used these BB's

"Quack, Quack, Look who's Back"--this was my back to school hall BB. I made a big duck that was me, and then little ducks following behind me with all the kids' names on each duck. Then I used real Cattails for decoration on that.

I also used "Pig out on Reading", "We're in the Mooood to write," and then I made a huge board that said "Work to Crow About" where I hug up all their work. I made it look like a clothes line and used clothes pins to hang up their work. I also put up paper crows on this BB. Hope this helps!

Western Theme

Welcome Board: "Giddy up for a new school year!" "Round up for a new school year!" "Look who Ms.___'s roped in for new school year"

Jobs: "Hats off to classroom helpers!" Each students name is on a tiny paper cowboy hat. Rotate them around to different jobs.

Good Work Board: "Blue Ribbon Work" Put a cowprint background and a giant blue ribbon OR "Kickin It up for Good Work!" with little boots around the border.

Decorations: Drape bandanas around the top of a board or tie together to hang over the tops of a window.

Student name tags: Use Print Shop or other program to put students' names on horses, cowboy boots, hats,etc.

Reading Corner: Toss in some cowprint beanbags and maybe an old saddle on a post (maybe you could find one that's not in use??) and put up a sign that says "READING RODEO" or "READING ROUND'UP!"

Halls/Door: You could decorate the hallways like stables. Put bales of hay (yellow paper with brown scribbles) all throughout, hang some rope lassos around, Cover the bottom half of your door with brown paper made to look like a barn door and put a giant horsehead on top. Put a sign that says "Ms.___'s Corral"

Award Coupons: Call them 'Golden Horseshoes'(create a coupon by putting clip art of a horseshoe and running copies of it on yellow paper) students could use thes coupons for various priveleges.

This year we are going to have a Kindergarten "Wishy Washy Parade." Each child is assigned a farm animal mask to decorate as a take home project. (For the ones that do not return a mask, we will have bandanas and farm hats.) The teachers will dress up as Mrs. Wishy Washy with an apron, fuzzy slippers, and do-rag. The students and teacher will do this chant-
"Down on the farm where everybody knows (Put hand on forehead and look around), lives the wishy washy woman and she's washing her clothes.(Put hands like you are hand washing clothes.) She goes ooh (hands over chest), ah (hands by side), hoochie coochie coochie (shake body), repeat 3 times, and that's how Mrs. Wishy Washy washes her clothes (act like you are washing clothes.)
All the Kindergarten classes will do this as a chant and group as we "parade" up and down each hallway.

I plan a farm week with my K4 as well. One of the activities they really like is "barn bags' I paste a small picture of a barn on a brown bag and write a letter on the barn. Either the first letter of there first of last name, I try to spread the letters out so I get the most letter variety. They take them home and fill them with small things or pictures that start with that letter. Obviously their family has to help a little. When they bring them back we sing for each student.

"farmer Susie has a barn, ee-ii--ee--ii--oo, and on the barn there is an "S" ....., and then I ask her to identify each item in the bag. They really really like this type of 'show and tell' I have seem some very imaginative items. I preference in a note attached that no food or breakable should be brought.

When learning about farm animals, I like to do a lesson on the products we get from animals/farm. Pig: bacon, cow: milk, grains: toast/biscuits, chicken: eggs,
This would be a good time to teach about how it gets to the store.
I also talk about how the other farm animals contribute: cat (keeps mice population down), goose (feathers), goats (cheese), turkey (meat), etc.
I end my farm unit with a breakfast where the children are grouped by jobs. Parent volunteers are needed for the breakfast to be a success. The jobs are: Waitresses(take orders with pictures depicting eggs, bacon, toast, juice/milk choices), cooks (with parent help), servers, and dishwashers (parental help). It was always one of my favorite units.

Ashley,
You could do a Language Experience Activity. Do something with the children such as take a trip to a farm, hatch a chick, do some sort of art activity, then write about it. You could brainstorm ideas with the class, write vocabulary (that they come up with) on the board, then write a class book. You could make it into the shape of a pig or something and let the children illustrate it.
Maybe read the book The Very Busy Spider, by Eric Carle and let the children make an Eric Carle book of their own. Act out Rosie the Hen.
You could use the Ellison Press to cut out farm animals, then cut them in half and program them with math problems. I have also put words on them, and capital letters and lower case letters and cut them in half. My kids love these games and they're so easy to make!
You could take an egg carton, talk about hens and eggs, then cut paper eggs out of construction paper. Glue them in a pattern in the top row of the egg carton and let the kids finish the pattern in the bottom row. Use plastic easter eggs. You can also use plastic easter eggs to make number/letter/or words puzzles.
If I can think of some other ideas I'll post them. Hope these help.
Farrah