The Farm-nomenal Farm: Types of Farms Learning Mat

Holy cow! Who knew there were so many kinds of farms out there? From aquaculture (fish/shellfish etc. farming) to dairy farming and everything in between. Take a look and see why farming is definitely something to crow about!

Types of Farms Learning Mat 
Subject: Science (Agricultural Science): Identifying many kinds of farms and recognizing the animals and plants which are developed/farmed there.

Items Needed to Make 
Dark blue card stock
Lime green card stock
Light green printing paper
Green marker
Glue or glue runner
Scissors
Sun and cloud sticker
Pencil to draw hill shapes
Laminator (Optional)
Laminating sheets (Optional)
Clip Art from Clker.com or a Word processing program

To Make

1. Draw 2 large hill shapes and 2 small hill shapes from light green printing paper and lime green card stock. 
2. Glue the hills onto dark blue card stock with glue or a glue runner. 
3. Use a green marker to draw small lines to create grass on the mountains. 
4. Place a cloud/sun sticker in the upper left-hand corner of your dark blue card stock. 
5. Laminate. (Optional) 
6. Find clip art for various farms such as a barn and a cow for dairy farming or a chicken and a chicken coop for poultry farming etc. Cut out clip art using scissors. 
7. Laminate. (Optional)

How to Teach with  Types of Farms Learning Mat 

1. Place the Types of Farms Learning Mat in center of circle. 
2. Tell the children that you are going to be learning about many kinds of farms. Ask the children what they think a farm is. 
3. After giving them a few moments to answer, instruct the children that a farm is a place where people called farmers grow plants and raise animals for food. 
4. Continue the lesson by identifying the many types of farms. Hold up the barn and tell the children that it is a dairy farm where milk is made. Ask them if they think a chicken or a cow helped make the milk. After the correct answer is told, place the cow next to the dairy barn. Continue with all of the animals and farming types you had printed out or until the children's attention span has waned. 

Other Uses for the Types of Farms Learning Mat 

Play dough Mat: Have the children create sheep, cows, pigs and other farm animals using play dough. 

Math Mat: Use a die and have the children roll it. Have them count the dots and place the amount indicated on the die such as rolling a five and putting five chips on the mat. This helps foster one-to one correspondence skills. 

Positional Awareness Mat: Early math skills are developed through placing farm animal figurines or shapes on top of the hills, next to the hills, by the barn etc.