Toy tractors serve many purposes in the preschool classroom during a farm unit. One artistic way to use the tractors is to create tractor print paintings. To do this, pour black or brown tempera paint on a paper plate. Tempera paint is washable and works well for preschool projects. Adults can help the kids drive a small toy tractor through the paint. The children then drive the tractor on a piece of paper to leave tractor tracks behind. Let the kids crisscross the tractor patterns as much as they like. For an additional accent, let the kids add some tractor stickers or construction paper tractor shapes on the drawing to look like the tractors made the tracks.
Chocolate pudding works for more than a tasty treat in the preschool classroom. It also works well as an edible finger paint material. Let the kids help mix up a batch of instant chocolate pudding. Each child gets a glob of the chocolate pudding on a piece of paper. Adults can show the kids how to use their hands and fingers to swirl the pudding all over the paper to create the look of mud. Add a picture of a pig cut out of pink construction paper to create a pig wallowing in the mud. The kids can finger paint some pudding onto the pigs as well.
The different animals on the farm make a good basis for preschool art projects. Adults can cut out large farm animal shapes from card stock or other sturdy paper. Ducks, cows, horses and pigs work well for this craft. You can make everyone the same animal or offer different shapes to the kids. Adults also will need to cut up squares of tissue paper in appropriate colors. For example, use pink for pigs, brown for horses and yellow for ducks. The kids glue the tissue paper squares onto the animal shapes to cover them. Add wiggly eyes and construction paper facial features to complete the animals.
Textured farm collages add extra interest to the farm art project. Adults can create the different farm shapes out of textured materials. For example, you might make hay bales out of real pieces of hay, a barn out of craft sticks painted red or sheep out of cotton balls. The kids glue the different textured materials onto a large piece of construction paper or poster board to create the farm collage scene.