Create 10 red barn cutouts with doors that open to reveal a different number of animals inside each barn. Invite students to help cut farm animal pictures out of magazines. Use the animals to fill up the barn cutouts so there is a barn with one cow, a barn with two horses, a barn with three pigs and so on. Tape the barns to the bulletin board and invite students to open the barn doors to count the number of animals inside. If students are ready, have them use sticky notes to write down the number of animals next to each barn. Allow pre-kindergartners to take down the barns and order them so the first barn has one animal, the next barn has two animals and continuing up to 10 animals in the last barn.
Invite pre-kindergartners to paint pictures of farm animals. Have students cut out their animals and hang them on a bulletin board featuring Farmer MacDonald. Take turns having children point to each animal while leading the class in singing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm." Later, write the names of animals on sticky notes and let students match the names to the correct animal. Extend the activity by writing the sounds the animals make on sticky notes and having children match the sounds to the animals that make them.
On one side of the bulletin board, hang pictures of farm animals and crops such as a cow, chicken, sheep, bees, pumpkin, stalk of corn, strawberries and an apple tree. On the other side hang pictures of milk, eggs, a wool sweater, cheese, wool socks, jack-o-lantern, strawberry jelly, corn on the cob, apple pie and honey. Provide pre-kindergartners with yarn and tape. Invite students to tape pieces of yarn connecting animals and crops with the food or clothing items they provide. Extend the activity by letting students find more pictures in magazines they can add to the bulletin board.
Read farm-themed stories such as "The Little Red Hen," "The Farmer in the Dell" or even "Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type" by Doreen Cronin. Set up a felt bulletin board with felt pieces relating to the farm stories. Invite the students to use the pieces to retell the story. Encourage students to work in groups to act out the stories and move the felt pieces around the board while repeating favorite lines from the stories. Allow students to use the felt pieces to make up new stories for the characters.