Making crafts and art projects is a staple in any kindergarten classroom. Activities, such as coloring, cutting, decorating and gluing, help children develop strong fine motor skills in their hands and fingers. Consider devoting a week or several days to studying cowboys. For each day of the cowboy unit, let students create a craft that is related to the lesson or story read in class. One such craft is a paper roll cowboy. Print out a cowboy picture for each student to decorate and cut out. Make sure that the cowboy picture or template has a body, head, arms and legs that are easy for kindergartners to color and cut out. Each student will also need a toilet paper tube, a piece of paper, crayons, scissors and glue. To assemble the craft, have each student color the cowboy picture. Then tell them to use the piece of paper to cover the paper roll. Next, students should cut out and glue their decorated cowboy body parts on top of the plain white paper. Give students plastic hats or other accessories to finish decorating their paper roll cowboys.
Reader's theater is a reading activity that allows students to act out, or perform, a piece of literature that they have read in class. For a Western-themed cowboy activity, consider reading, "L Is for Lone Star: A Texas Alphabet" by Alan Stacy. As you read the book aloud, ask several students to perform the book in front of the class while the seated students form letters of the alphabet with their arms or fingers.
Line dancing is commonly associated with cowboys. Some popular line dances include the Texas Two Step and the Texas Hoedown. During your class' cowboys study unit, invite students to come to school dressed as cowboys and cowgirls. Teach the students basic line dancing steps in small groups. Then allow the whole class to dance together and talk about what they have learned about the old west and cowboys.
Consider singing songs about cowboys that teach students about the Old West and frontier life. Teach students "The Little Cowboy," sung to the tune of "I'm A Little Teapot." Project the words of the song in an animated PowerPoint presentation and sing the song along with the children several times:
I'm a little cowboy; here is my hat (child points to self then to head)
Here are my spurs (child points to feet)
And here are my chaps (child pats legs)
As soon as I get up (child pretends to stretch)
I work all day (child pretends to lasso)
I get on my horse (child pretends to mount a horse)
And ride away (child pretends to gallop off on the horse).
Performing this song with kindergarten students helps them develop motor skills, identify different parts of the body and learn new vocabulary words. After performing the song, ask students questions, such as "What are spurs?" and "What does the cowboy do all day?" Singing the song and asking questions helps students remember and recall the words of the song.