Little Ones Learning: A Visit to the Farm!

The best part of learning about the farm is GOING to the farm, of course!  Most areas have farms that you can visit, at least seasonally.  I am blessed to live near a beautiful farm park, which is where we planned a visit to this week.

Before heading to the park, Grace (4) and I sat down and made a list of things to look for at the farm.  We've been to the farm park before, so she already had a bunch of ideas of things she might find.  I used some of her ideas and made them a little trickier.  For example, she knows there are cows, goats, pigs, and chickens there, so the scavenger hunt asks her to find a 2-legged animal, 4-legged animal, and an animal with horns.  The first one shown below is the one we used on our trip.  I left two boxes blank so Grace could add her own ideas.

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Grace really got a kick out of carrying around her scavenger hunt chart and crossing things off.  She was determined to find an egg.  In fact, she went back several times to the hen house to see if she missed one.  No luck.  But she loved it anyway!  It kept her focused and engaged at a place we've seen several times.  She noticed a lot of new things this trip!

Here are a couple of other examples of scavenger hunts:

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Below are some blank scavenger hunt sheets that you can fill out any way you want.  For younger kids (8 and under), pictures are really important, unless you plan on reading the items off for them.  

You could also use the one on the left with boxes to create a bingo game with older kids.  For bingo, each child should get their own blank chart.  Then, they fill in different boxes with various items they might find at the farm.  As they cross them off, they can aim for 4 in a row, 4 corners, etc..  I could totally have used this on a field trip in school!

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Here are some pictures of our trip:

Don't think this was easy with three little ones.  My Aunt Susie and Aunt Meri came along (thank you!!!) and helped keep the herd contained.  Our picnic lunch was not exactly relaxing either with the toddlers tag-teaming a game of runaway.  The kids had a great time, and even though it wasn't easy, it was definitely worth it.  Plus there were looonnngg naps afterward for everyone. :)

If you have any suggestions for scavenger hunts or farm visit activities, comment below!