Reinforce letter-sound recognition during your farm animal study. On pieces of paper, write an uppercase and lowercase letter that a specific animal begins with, for example, "P" for "pig," and write "P is for pig" at the bottom of the paper. Distribute the papers to children and have them name the letter written on the page. Encourage them to trace both the uppercase and lowercase letter on the page. Provide students with stickers or stamps that feature the animal and have them place the stamps or stickers on the page.
Have students sequence events in a story to promote reading comprehension. Read aloud the story "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" by Pam Adams. Photocopy images of the animals in the book and put the images in a pocket chart, or spread them out on a flat surface, in a jumbled order. Invite children to arrange the pictures in the correct order in which they appear in the story. After arranging the pictures, encourage students to use the pictures to retell the story.
This activity reinforces alphabetical order. Print out pictures of farm animals and spread them out. Encourage children to sort through the pictures and arrange them in alphabetical order based on the letters that each of the animals begins with. For example, a picture of a cow would go first, a picture of a goat would go second and a picture of a sheep would go last.
Use farm animals as a means of promoting phonemic awareness in students. On index cards, draw three boxes in a horizontal row. Distribute the cards to students and provide them with some type of marker: a bingo chip, a jelly bean or a coin, perhaps. State the name of a farm animal and ask students where they hear a particular consonant sound in the name of the animal. Instruct students to place the marker in the box that indicates where they heard the consonant sound. This could be the first box if the sound is in the beginning of the word, the second box if the sound is in the middle of the word or the last box if the sound is at the end of the word. For example, if you say the word "pig" and ask students where they hear the "g" sound, students should place the marker in the last box.