A Peek Inside Our Playroom: Fall Farm Dramatic Play

After a month of holidays, I just want to play! Not that we didn't play here over the last month, but with so many holidays back to back, we are just now getting into a Fall routine. And speaking of Fall, it seemed like a perfect time to set up a Fall Farm Dramatic Play theme in our play area. So come on in, take a peek inside our playroom and get ready for some Fall-themed fun at our farm!
When it comes to setting up new play themes I need it to be time and budget efficient. That means we repeat themes here--and why not? Every time my kids explore a play theme again, they bring new life and learning to it. I use what I have on hand and many of our resources and props cross over from one theme to another. Storage is always a work in progress so I can actually find the resources and props I want, but I like 2 gallon ziplock bags for flat and smaller materials and larger plastic bins for dramatic play props and costumes. I get the kids on board to create new props and materials because it's less work for me and more fun for them. I also make my setup a gradual process rather than a massive project. For one thing, this is what time and energy allows for right now and it also gives the kids a chance to explore and experience activities one at a time rather than being overwhelmed by so many new things that they end up not playing at all. And with this particular theme, I'm actually going at an even slower pace, intentionally adding in props that the boys will help to make and new activities that I will join in with them so that we can squeeze a bit more use out of one play theme before I transition to another.

In our month of endless holidays, we totally missed pumpkin picking season this year. Last year we spent an afternoon at a dramatic play pumpkin patch, and I knew I wanted to incorporate that into our Fall Farm this year. Printable resources for dramatic play are a great, time saving resource. I especially like the dramatic play sets from Pocket of Preschool and in this setup I used materials from both the Apple Orchard Dramatic Play and the Pumpkin Patch Dramatic Play sets. I print and laminate materials once and store them between use.

So far our Fall Farm includes:

• a build your own pumpkin patch for planting and growing pumpkins
• hayrides
• pumpkin picking
• a snack shop
• a "face painting" station
• a kitchen for preparing and selling foods served in the snack shop
• a weighing station for pumpkins, gourds, candy, cookies, etc.
• a cashier's station with tickets for purchase, a cash register, receipt pads and order forms
• "cameras" for taking pictures
• handmade snack and food props (with more to come...)

At the Build Your Own Pumpkin Patch, our shelves our stocked with planting pots, a gardening shovel and rake, a watering can, "seeds" (I used rocks), "dirt" (I used pompoms and also a large piece of fabric to lay down on the floor as a garden bed, real mini pumpkins and gourds (you could make your own or use artificial ones if you prefer), and artificial vines. You can get creative with your props here, using what you have, making what you don't have.

S really liked putting the fabric down as a garden bed and then sprinkling "dirt" and "seeds" overtop. The photo at the head of this post is how his pumpkin patch looked once they had grown and were ready to harvest!

When it's time to harvest, guests can ride "tractors" (scooters--I later taped a photo of hay on top) to the pumpkin patch and pick their gourds and pumpkins. They can take them to the weighing station and weigh them. The boys especially love putting things in bags (I have no idea why!) and some brown lunch bags were perfect here.

They have also really enjoyed baking pies, selling treats and visiting the snack shop. I used some printables from the Pumpkin Patch Dramatic Play Set I mentioned above and laminated different foods that they could velcro on to the snack menu each time they play.

We made the "caramel apples" using some foam decorative apples we had left from a few years ago. I stuck in some wooden craft sticks and we drizzled glitter glue over them to look like caramel coating. We made some "pumpkin cookies" using leftover felt shapes I had from last year, fabric paint and glitter for icing. I recycled some empty fruit cups and turned them into "applesauce" by painting the inside yellow and adding a laminated label from the Apple Orchard Dramatic Play set with velcro dots to open and close. Later this week we will be making model magic cookies and perhaps some other delicacies.

Our "face painting" station is just a laminated picture of face paints and some clean brushes. I might b adventurous after October 31st when real face paints go on sale!

This has given us a lot of "food for thought" as we begin our play adventure. Stay tuned for more additions and updates and until then...

Happy Playing!

Sprout Scouts Playcamp: Grow Your Own Green Thumb, From Farm[ers Market] to Table

Here at the Sprout Scouts Playcamp, the garden is in its next phase of harvest. Many things are blooming and growing in spite of me and we're enjoying a small but bountiful harvest of fresh herbs, tomatoes, green beans, flowers, and even still some hot peppers. We have faced and organically fought squash bugs and have one mini pumpkin and one mini gourd to show for it. We have done a fair amount of taste testing, cooking, baking and preserving in our kitchen, but when it came to the next part of our Grow Your Own Green Thumb play-theme, taking it from the garden to the table, I decided to leave our home altogether and head to the local Farmers Market. We've made occasional visits to farmers markets here this summer and when we had an unexpected day freed up to visit one of my favorites, we brought our bags, our appetites and a great free printable scavenger hunt from Natural Beach Living. You can print off your own and other great farmers market themed printables here! S and Y both got to pick a fruit or vegetable to taste and bring home. S wanted nectarines and Y wanted cucumbers (probably to make pickles, his new favorite food).

Getting out in the garden is a great way to get kids involved in growing, tasting and cooking with their own fresh produce. Whether you have an adventurous eater or a more tentative taster (I've got one of each now), experiencing the full process of seasonal eating is a valuable experience. If you live near a farmers market, I highly encourage you to take your family on an adventure. Try something new. Talk to the farmers. Get excited about fruits, veggies and flowers! If you do not live near a farmers market, consider a trip to a U-pick farm (we went strawberry picking earlier this summer) or even a trip to your local grocery store. 

Scavenger hunts are a great way to explore the colors and flavors of the season. Consider researching recipes for a new to you fruit or vegetable. We even made an adventure (and a bracha) out of trying a new fruit from a produce stand in Brooklyn, NY while on vacation! Another option if your location and budget permit is to join a CSA and have locally grown produce delivered right to your door (or another nearby location) year round. We subscribe to one on a bi-weekly basis and adjust our grocery budget accordingly. This helps us to eat in season and be a bit more creative about recipe planning and using what we have.

Summer is a great season to grow and harvest a plethora of produce. As it comes to a close, we will enjoy the flavors of Autumn and get creative about savoring and preserving the remaining summer abundance. We will also get creative about continuing to garden both outdoors in our longer southern summer season and then indoors once the cool weather arrives. It feels important to still be surrounded by growth, life and fresh flavors! Until the next time...

Happy Playing!

Little House & the Farm, Part 5: 3 Themed Play Activities with Cinnamon Spice Playdough

Playdough is currency here. Both my boys would be totally content to play with it every day and maybe even all day! We use plenty of store-bought playdoughs and I even allow mixing colors (gasp!) but I love making our own. It's cheap, it's fast, it's fun and it is also quite nostalgic for me as I recall my own mother making playdough for us at home (and in her classrooms).

I especially love the option with homemade playdough to add in unique colors, scents and textures. On a whim before heading out to host our most recent Park n'Play Group, I whipped up a batch of sparkly blue lavender scented playdough for the children to use when they were done painting clouds on mirrors. We packed along some rolling pins, plastic knives and cookie cutters and this was as popular an activity with our group as the mirror painting!

At home, I often have a little helper or two when making playdough. With any cooking activity that involves the stove top, support and supervision are a must. Additionally, you'll want to be prepared that the dough will be too hot to handle right away, especially for little hands. For our Little House & The Farm play theme, I really wanted a dough with a theme related feel. Nothing to me says homestead more than the scent of cinnamon spice. This playdough smells good enough to eat and is technically edible, but not at all tasty, so you'll want to inform your little ones that it is to play with and not to taste.

To make Cinnamon Spice Playdough
You will need:

• 1 cup white flour
• 1/4 cup salt
• 2 TBSP cream of tartar
• 2-3 teaspoons cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, all-spice, cloves, nutmeg (in any combination)
• 1 TBSP oil
• 1 cup water

Instructions: In a medium sized saucepan, combine all of your ingredients and mix well. In this dough, your spices give both a scent and a lovely color. Add as much as you like in whatever combination you prefer to achieve your desired shade and scent. Turn the heat on your burner to medium/medium-low. You'll need to keep stirring as the dough cooks and thickens. It may be a bit lumpy at first, but rest assured your stirring and kneading and subsequent playing will get those lumps out in no time. This is a very forgiving recipe and while it will be quite sticky as it thickens, your pan will come clean with a good scrape from a spatula and the dough itself. Anything left behind does best to be soaked in soapy water and easily washed away. Once your dough is thickened to a large ball in the center of the pot, you're ready to remove it from the heat. Wait a bit until it is cool enough to handle (please carefully test it before giving it to children) and knead it well on a cutting mat or art mat. Once it is cool enough to handle, you're ready to play! Store in an airtight container or ziplock bag between use. Dough generally keeps for at least a couple of weeks this way.

1.  Cinnamon Spice Bakery: Our first themed activity with our playdough was to play about baking with it! All throughout the Little House books, Ma is baking breads, cookies, cakes, pancakes and more! Add in some plastic knives, rolling pins, cookie cutters and kitchen utensils and you're ready to bake just like Laura and her family!
2. Invitation to Build a Farm: Wooden craft sticks in two widths and a collection of small plastic farm animals (these are from Walmart) were set out on our sectioned tray for the boys to build their own farms. This is a great way to incorporate STEM and building activities into sensory play! I did not give specific instructions, but rather allowed each of the boys to explore the materials as they wished. 

   

   Y enjoyed gathering and collecting (aka: hoarding) materials and squishing them into the dough. He also acted out little scenes with the animals walking along the table.

   
   

   

   S had a whole story line going with the animals in his craft stick fence. The cat was quite sad because her mother was gone. The other animals helped to look after her while she waited for Mother Cat to return.

3. Invitation to Build Your Own Little House: One of the most fascinating parts of the second of the Little House books, Little House on the Prairie is when Pa builds the family's new home out of logs and wood! My First Little House Books: A Little Prairie House adapted from the Little House books is a great version of this to share with the younger crowd and has beautiful illustrations by Renee Graef to go along. We scored a set of Lincoln Logs from a local thrift shop a while back and added those in along with the wooden craft sticks in this invitation to play. You could easily do without the Lincoln Logs and you could also add in wood blocks of another kind or even twigs and natural loose parts for building. The boys had so much fun building their own unique log cabins.

 Building with Lincoln Logs can often be a little challenging for young children as they learn to master the art of balancing the groves properly so their structures don't topple over. The addition of playdough to this mix allowed a whole new dimension of building--even working vertically for S and he took his building to all new heights (literally).

I hope this simple recipe and the ideas to accompany it inspire some fun sensory and STEM play in your own home. We have more themed fun coming up and until then...


Happy Playing!

Little House & The Farm, Part 2: The General Store

As I was gathering materials and ideas for our current play theme, Little House & The Farm, I came across a lot of wonderful resources and ideas on other blogs, Little House websites and homeschool websites. One of my favorites is this free printable Little House in the Big Woods & Pioneer Unit available at Every Star is Different (an especially useful site for those interested in Montessori style education). I tend to add my own flavor to printable materials, and I decided to adapt many of these into our Ever-changing Book. S especially took to "The General Store" activity. I laminated the cards provided in the free printable pack and added in a background page with some images I found of Colonial style General Stores. I added a small pouch of play coins (you could use real coins) and he could "go shopping" by choosing what he wanted to buy and matching the coins. Older children could add up the sum while younger ones would do best to match the coins to the picture. Our play money is true to size, which makes that easier. It also sparked a conversation of similarities and differences between coins and what each coin is called. S had a hard time telling apart the nickles and quarters at first until I showed him that nickels have a smooth edge and quarters have a bumpy one. In addition to matching and observing the spacial awareness to do so, he also worked on one-to-one correspondence and counting as he figured out how many of each coin he needed. When he filled the card, he got to keep it and play again!

Well, this was enough fun that he requested to play the game as is a few times this week. But I wanted to expand the activity into a "real" General Store dramatic play scene so both boys could go shopping Pioneer style! I tried to keep mostly true to the time period with some modern flair thrown in (I'm pretty sure Paw Patrol was not a common calico print of the time). I set up shop on our long dining room table while the boys napped [well, one of them at least] and then it was shopping day!

Our General Store stocked pots and pans, kitchen knives, handsaws and hammers, nails, boots, dried beans, ribbon (that needed to be measured and cut--gotta throw in some math and fine motor practice, right?), fabric, buttons, sugar and even candy! Each of the boys was given a pouch of large play coins (to be a bit more accommodating to Y who still explores with his mouth) and each item would cost one coin (also to be a bit more accommodating to mixed ages). Older shoppers could be encouraged to do a bit of adding while they shop with a more creative pricing system. Even as we set it up, they might have to pay a coin for one pot or 1 foot of yarn (and more if they wanted 2 feet), one scoop of beans or candy and so on.

I stocked shopping bags and drawstring pouches for our shoppers and a sales registry I bought a while ago at Dollar Tree for dramatic play. As they shopped, I wrote down their purchases and added their total. S helped count the appropriate number of coins. He would have spent his whole pouch of money on candy if there weren't a two scoop limit, although he was nearly as excited for the 4 nails to add to his wood shop!

S thoroughly examined the Paw Patrol fabric he wanted to buy before making his final decision. We'd be using this again in projects later in the week...

Y was quite thrilled to be bringing home a new hammer and handsaw! I wonder what he'll build?

It was a great day at the General Store!

This was such a fun way to spend our afternoon engaged in dramatic play. But play is not the only thing that happened--we also learned a bit about history and practiced math skills like measuring, counting, adding and early reading and writing in our print-rich environment. Our play scene was also a great opportunity to practice the social skills of shopping like waiting your turn, navigating a crowded store, and communicating politely with sales associates and other shoppers. The boys demolished the candy, S saved his pouch of sugar to add to our Shabbos dessert recipe later this week and the fabric and ribbons they bought were to make a second surprise appearance in the morning. Join us tomorrow to see what became of them and until then...

Happy Playing!

Little House & The Farm, Part 1: Sheep's Wool Sensory Bin

The Sprout Scouts Playcamp is taking a trip back in time to when the American Pioneers lived and farmed! We planned to spend a couple of weeks in a farm theme here, one we have definitely explored before and love. We could revisit this theme again and again and never run out of ways to explore the fun and learning that a farm has to offer. But when S sat down beside me while I was re-reading Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (hey, some of us read trashy romance novels and some of us read young adult historical fiction...) over Shabbos a couple of weeks ago and asked me to read aloud, I gladly obliged. And I also got a BIG idea to give our farm theme a little house flair! How fun would it be to travel back in time to the days of the Pioneers and learn about life on the farm back then.

Our theme started off with a Friday field trip to a local farm museum that welcomes guests for guided tours or just to explore independently throughout the year. We got to pet and feed sheep, meet the cows and pigs and donkeys and even try out some old fashioned tools to cut and chop wood! We could not have asked for a more perfect way to begin our activities this week. I spent many evenings last week and much of Sunday plotting, planning and preparing for a lot of ways to play and learn this week, and I think I might be more excited than even the boys! Join us on our trek back in time as we...

• explore farm animals through songs, sensory play, art and dramatic play
• open our own General Store
• try our hands at doll making in a variety of ways
• engage in some creative Little House Building
• hand dye our own fabric
• test out some old fashioned, tasty treats in the kitchen
• get moving with some old time tunes
• play and learn about work on the farm during the Pioneers' days

...and more!

Feel free to try some or all of the activities at home. We likely won't get to everything I have planned (and I can't stop myself!) right now and that's OK. These activities are ones we will surely enjoy and probably revisit over the course of the year.

Since both boys especially loved seeing, petting and even feeding the sheep on the farm last week, I thought we'd start off the week with an opportunity to explore one of these creatures greatest gifts, wool!

My boys have seen me knitting and needle felting and even helped me pick out yarn at the store, but neither one has ever seen how that yarn came to arrive on the store shelf. As a needle-felter, I have a stash of sheep's wool roving on hand and thought this would be the perfect addition to our sensory table! I headed over to the Dollar Tree to pick up a couple of dog brushes and hair brushes for the boys to use to try carding wool. I can actually remember visiting a museum as a little girl that had a similar setup in an exhibit and loving the experience! I set out a basket of un-dyed wool roving, a few different sets of brushes, a ball of white yarn to see "the finished product" and Google image searched for some photos to show to steps involved from sheep to wool to yarn. With a couple of our favorite plush sheep to keep company while we worked, the boys (even Tatty) were ready to try their hands at carding wool! S was a little confused at first that our wool wasn't "string" yet after he was busy brushing for a while. He even went back to the metal ring of photo cards to see what steps he might be missing! Then I explained, with the help of our photos, that we were only practicing the process of smoothing the wool by carding and that we'd need special tools like a spinning wheel or drop spindle to actually make yarn. He may have been a little disappointed that we didn't have the tools to finish the job, but perhaps we will find a video or local demonstration for him to see.

Both S and Y had fun this morning making some woolly sheep decorations to hang in our window. I prepped this simple activity by cutting the shape of a sheep's body out of clear contact paper and adding black construction paper legs and head with some clear tape on the back. I removed the backing from the contact paper, sticky side up, and the boys were able to stick on cotton balls for wool. Y piled them high and deep and S enjoyed stretching a few across the sticky contact paper.

It's another rainy start to the week here, but this play theme is one that is just as much fun to explore indoors as outside. We'll be back soon with some more old fashioned fun on the farm. Until then...

Happy Playing!

A Playtime Post: Pumpkin, Pumpkin!

You know those obnoxious people who start going crazy over all things pumpkin in the middle of July? I'm one of 'em! I love Autumn and I love pumpkins, and I don't care if it's not even Labor Day, I'm gonna start pumpkin spicing everything.
By September, we took an afternoon outing to my favorite local produce shop to pick some decorative pumpkins and gourds for our table...

By the beginning of October, although temperatures were still in the upper 80s here, I had concocted my own loom knitting pattern to whip up a couple of pumpkin hats for my own little bumpkins:

Maybe I'll just crank the AC up and let them wear these inside...

And yesterday, we accompanied S's preschool on their Fall field trip to a local farm to pick pumpkins!

I learned a lot on our field trip...

• Did you know the flowers on pumpkin vines that actually bare fruit are purple, not orange?
• Managing 20 preschoolers belonging to other people on a field trip was way easier than managing my own preschooler on a field trip--he literally turned into a pumpkin in the middle of a pumpkin field requiring me to football carry him back to the hay ride...
• If your preschooler refuses to put on a pumpkin hat you spent three days knitting to pose for a photo, you can bribe him with pretzels and then he will undoubtedly refuse the reward until you agree to take half a dozen more photos...
• Pumpkins come in all shapes as they evolve from seed to plant to flower to fruit...our adult vision may gloss over some of those incredible early stages of life as we eye the prize of a bright orange giant of a fruit, but you can be sure your little ones will notice and appreciate even the tiniest, most incredible signs of growth and life!

S was enamored with these teeny tiny little baby pumpkins. He really wanted to pick one but chose to leave them on the vine so they could grow into great, big pumpkins all in due time! I admired his fascination with everything from the purple flowers to the still-green pumpkins to the giant orange prize-winners and everything in between. We came home lugging one big orange pumpkin, one medium sized green and orange specimen, and a little green guy, along with two tuckered out boys ready for a good, long afternoon nap!

As tired out as we all were after the big morning, I was in the mood for some more pumpkin themed fun. While the boys slept, I cooked up a batch of my favorite stove-top playdough adding red and yellow food coloring to give it a lovely shade of orange and a generous dose of pumpkin spice for scent. After naptime, both boys dug right in to the playdough fun! Along with our playdough, I set out a laminated playdough mat of a pumpkin patch scene that I printed off for free from this great website. I demonstrated to S how to roll little balls into pumpkins, which he loved doing. He also took it a step further and began "smashing" pumpkins, which led to baking pumpkin cakes and pumpkin cookies until he noticed the bag of dried pumpkin seeds that his Safta sent last year from a pumpkin that grew in her garden. He asked if he could open the bag and use the seeds in the playdough, and while I hesitated at first, I decided to let him have at it. After all, how many years do I plan to save dried pumpkin seeds?? And with half a dozen pumpkins gracing our dining room table right now, there's plenty more where that came from!

S had so much fun using his fine motor skills to pour the seeds into a little dish, to pinch and pick up seeds as they spilled or fell on the floor, and pinching and poking the seeds into his playdough to "plant pumpkins." This is the joy of child led play and exploration! I, the adult, rolled little balls for pumpkins in a pumpkin patch, but S, a child, had a pumpkin patch, a full service bakery and a raised bed garden for planting pumpkin seeds! Y enjoyed teething on the pumpkin shaped cookie cutter...

S also loved using some laminated cards depicting the life-cycle of a pumpkin that I printed off for free over at montessoriforeveryone.com. There are a great variety of free printables here as well as some fabulous articles and resources for families and teachers who are inspired by the Montessori method. S used the cards both to retell the life-cycle sequence and to talk about things we had seen on our trip that morning. Then he asked to read a book from our shelf, Pumpkin, Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington as he continued to play with the playdough.

That was all the pumpkin themed fun we could squeeze into one day! There are so many great activities you can do with pumpkins, and if you're looking for some more, you can revisit some of our favorites from last year. S really wants to bake a real pumpkin cake with a cooking pumpkin he bought with his Tatty and I have a few other ideas up my sleeve for the weeks to come. Until then...

Happy Playing!

Beyond the Book: "Rosie's Walk" by Pat Hutchins

When S asked to do a story stretcher with a book about a farm, I had a few in mind. Over and over again, I kept going back to the classic tale by Pat Hutchins, Rosie's Walk. Rosie the hen leaves her chicken coop for a little stroll. As she moves about the book through pages of bold illustrations, she is blissfully ignorant of a very determined fox following closely behind her. This book is great all on its own or as part of a farm theme. My favorite aspect of using this book with children is that it can truly get them moving. Reading need not be a sedentary activity--and while you're at it, you'll be teaching and learning some great prepositional and directional language!

A story walk is a great way to take the text right off the page of this book and take your little readers into the world of story drama! S talked last week about wanting to make a bird costume and since Rosie the Hen is the protagonist in this book, I knew he'd get a kick out of making a hen hat to wear. We already had a fox hat from when S was a baby. It is definitely more Y's size at this point and I foresaw that S might feel jealous so getting to make his own hen hat was a definite bonus. Costumes are a great addition to story stretcher activities. They can really bring the story alive and engage your young readers. Alternatively you can use toys/props or make your own puppets. I combined text written on sentence strips and laminated pictures from the book that I printed and laminated from this great website to set up a story walk along our living room floor. When S woke up and came downstairs from his nap, he immediately saw our story map lining the hardwood floor and was excited to add the finishing touches to his hen hat.

We created our hen hat by stapling together a couple of strips of white cardboard. I covered the front with clear contact paper, sticky side out, but stapled a second layer of cardboard to the inside of the hat so it wouldn't stick to anyone's hair! In advance I drew on eyes and attached the beak and waddle--older artists can help with this and even younger ones if you have a bit more time on your hands!

S made a great Rosie and was definitely ready for a walk. Y was a great, albeit sleepy little fox...

Our story walk took us from one end of our living room to the other, with all roads leading to home in our kitchen set, where Rosie arrives safely in time for dinner. The printed and laminated pictures are a great addition to a movable story map like this or can be used with velcro as a flannel board set, made into stick puppets or glued onto a paper collage story map. If you want to take it outdoors, you could even set this activity up outside using sidewalk chalk and/or props. It's unbearably hot here right now, so story stretchers are a great way to entertain us indoors for a bit!

I included a basket of some supplemental
 farm themed reading 

I especially love how story stretcher activities inspire and encourage dramatic play. We happen to have some great farm themed toys and books as well as a felt board set I found at a secondhand store a while ago. Including music and movement to children's book extension activities is also a great way to get moving while building vocabulary, rhyme awareness and other early literacy skills. S and Y both love a song we frequently hear at our local library's story times, "Knock Knock Knock" by Michele Valeri from her album "Little Ditties for Itty Bitties."

 That flannel board set made a great addition to listening to and singing that song. We added each of the animals to the board as they "knocked" on the door and then continued the song on our own with other farm animals. Thrift stores can be a great resource for play and learning materials like flannel board sets. And you can also make your own set by printing and laminating pictures and adding velcro to the backside. Flannel boards are such a fabulous supplement to reading children's literature and greatly appeal to visual and tactile learners. They can also be used by children to retell and invent their own stories and nursery rhymes.

Arts and crafts are another favorite story stretcher activity here. I had set up a couple of simple farm themed activities for S. 

Our marble roll "pig in the mud" (brown paint) was a lot of fun!

S loved sticking cotton balls onto this contact paper sheep. I showed him how
 they can be stuck on whole or pulled apart like sheep's wool.

S especially likes the part where we hang up his finished artwork!

S really wanted to use his scissors today, so on the fly I set up a cutting practice activity to find some hidden farm animals hiding in the "grass:" 

I drew a simple barn on white paper, sneaked a few farm animal stickers at the bottom of the page and stapled on some construction paper grass to the bottom as well. S got busy cutting the grass with his scissors to reveal the hidden farm animals and then colored the barn and some rain in the sky!

I often conclude our story stretchers with a related sensory bin--another great way to encourage dramatic play and theme expansion. I set up this bin with popping corn kernels. For those who prefer not to use food in sensory play, you can sub in your favorite non-food fillers. Shredded brown bags would look great or even hay. Alternatively, you could always use the popping corn for its intended purpose when you're done playing. I store and reserve this for repeated use in our sensory bins as well as craft projects.
For some further reading, I printed out a very simple emergent reader about farm animals from this website. I am not a huge fan of using emergent readers in the traditional sense, however S (like many kids) loves the feeling of reading to me all by himself. Simple books like this and building sight word recognition are one component of early literacy. Some early readers really catch on to sight words and learn well in this way. Others do better with sounding out words and phonemic awareness. There are many right ways to learn how to read, but fostering a lifelong love of literature is the most important goal for me both as a parent and an educator. S enjoyed reading this booklet to me and to Y repeatedly and coloring in the animals. I demonstrate to him the first time how to track his finger underneath the words. Even if he is not yet recognizing words, he is learning that text on a page is where the story comes from! It can be helpful if using printable emergent readers like this one to have a copy for yourself and each of your emerging readers and to sit facing the same direction.

S is excited and eager to be choosing the themes and/or titles for our story stretchers lately and all of these factors are nurturing his own love of literature. We will be back with another story stretcher activity next week. Until then, happy playing!