Have children decorate cows with pieces of torn paper. On a piece of white paper, draw an outline of a cow for each child. Discuss the shape of the cows bodies and have children count how many legs cows have and point out their tails and their udders. Provide children with pieces of brown and black construction paper. Instruct children to tear the construction paper into small pieces and place the pieces into piles. Once they have finished tearing the construction paper, have them glue the torn pieces onto the cows, creating spots on the farm animals. Through this activity, children express their creativity while learning about the body parts of cows.
In activity, children learn that the markings on cows are similar to the human fingerprint -- no two are alike. Draw the outline of a cow on a piece of paper for each child in your class. Distribute the outlines to your students, have them cut the outlines out and glue them to a piece of construction paper. Set out bowls of black or brown finger paint. Instruct children to dip their fingers into the finger paint and press them onto the outline of their cows, creating one-of-a-kind cow prints. After decorating their cows, have children use markers to decorate the background of their pictures.
Another way that children can decorate cow crafts is with markers. Set out brown and black markers and invite children to choose one of the colors. Provide students with pieces of white construction paper; instruct them to remove the caps from their markers and make random dots on the pieces of paper. Once they are satisfied with the amounts of dots they have created on their paper, give them detailed cow-shaped stencils. Have them trace the stencils onto their dotted papers and cut them out. Use this art activity as a means of reinforcing what students know about cows. Ask them to point out and name the different parts of their cows.
Children learn that there are different types of cows through this art activity. Show children pictures of different types of cows, such as Holstein-Friesian, Jersey, Guernsey and Brown Swiss. Provide them with pieces of white paper and pencils and encourage them to draw their own pictures of the cows. After drawing their pictures, provide them with brown and black circular stickers and instruct them to place the stickers on their cow drawings. They may use markers to further embellish the pictures of their cows. Invite them to share their pictures and tell which type of cow they have drawn.