Make your own paper farm animal game
Here, you will need:
- Construction paper
- Farm animal stencils
- A die
- Markers
The first step consists of using the stencils to create a farm scene. I chose green construction paper to represent a grassy field. To begin, I drew a fence around the contour of the paper using a fence section stencil. Within this enclosure, I used stencils to draw a pig, a rooster, a rabbit, a duck, and a turkey.
With very young children, simply use the scene for a recognition game. Name an animal and invite them to point to the corresponding drawing. You can also have fun making an animal sound and encouraging them to identify the correct animal by setting a button or other marker on it.
To push this game further, trace the shapes that are in your scene once each on another sheet of construction paper. Note that I used 6 shapes and associated each one to a number from 1 to 6 to create a legend.
Using this legend, you can invite children to take turns rolling a die and naming the animal or shape associated to the number shown on the latter. For example, if a child rolls a 4, he will say “turkey”. Children will enjoy walking around like a turkey for a few minutes. This is a great way to encourage them to be active!
You could also create an identical scene for each child and invite them to deposit a button on the animals as well as each fence section one at a time, per the number they roll on the die. The first player who sets a button on each animal and fence section wins.
Older children can each create their own scene before you play, making sure it is exactly like yours.
Another way to play would be to give each child a blank piece of paper and have them take turns rolling the die and drawing the animal corresponding to the number shown per the legend. For example, if a child rolls a 5, he must draw a pig in the correct area on his paper. If, the next time it’s his turn, he rolls a 1, have him draw a fence section and so on. The first child who completes his scene wins.
Have fun!
Patricia-Ann Morrison