Using paper plates, have each child create a horse mask. Help them to cut holes for the eyes and mouths, and let them decorate the masks using markers or paints. Help them glue construction paper ears on the tops of the masks. Once the masks are decorated, glue a popsicle stick to the bottom of the masks, so that they can hold them in front of their faces.
Next, draw the inside of a barn on a large black or white board hanging on the wall. Include the basic elements a horse needs: a stall, hay, feed and water buckets. Explain to the children why all of these are necessary to the horses. Let the children wear their masks and pretend to investigate the barn you have drawn on the board.
Supply the children with Lincoln Logs, and have them work in small groups to build barns from them. The children will need to work together to decide the barn's size and where the windows and doors will go. Next, have each child create a horse from Play-Doh in the color of his choice. Once the children have created their horses and barns, talk with them about the design of their barns and the construction of their horses. Explain what the different parts of a horse's body are called and why, for example, horses have manes and tails. Discuss with the children the importance of the barn as a place for the horses to live.
First, help the children create their own horse costumes from large cardboard boxes. Turn each box upside down so that it's completely open top becomes the bottom. Cut a hole in what is now the box's top that is large enough for the child's waist to fit through. Cut a head and tail out of cardboard and make slits in the front and back of the box, attaching the head and tail through the slits. Add two strips of rope or elastic for suspender straps to either side of the top opening of each box.
Once each child is wearing his cardboard horse, bring the class outside. Using a playground jungle gym, scatter some hay on the ground to create a "barn." Have the children pretend to walk, trot and gallop out of their barn and around the playground. Once the children have practiced all three gaits, discuss the differences with them.
Have the children put their socks on their hands, creating a "mouth" by placing their thumb under their fingers in the toe of the sock. This mouth can be emphasized by bending an oval piece of construction paper or light cardboard and gluing it inside the sock's toe, providing the children's hands something to form around as the puppet's mouth. Let the children complete their puppets by gluing on construction paper eyes, nostrils, ears and a mane made of string or ribbon. Using a tension curtain rod, drape a curtain in a doorway that hangs down far enough to allow the children to kneel behind the curtain without being seen. Frame the doorway above the curtain with painted pieces of cardboard so that it looks like the entrance to a barn. Have the children perform a horses-in-the-barn puppet show with their newly created sock puppets.