This month we’ve been reading children’s books about cowboys, farms, and the Oregon Trail as part of our virtual book club’s “The Wild West” theme.  If you’re not familiar with the Poppins Book Nook Series, it is a virtual book club featuring numerous activities that connect books with hands-on learning activities. It’s so much fun! You can see all of our other fun learning activities based on books we’ve done so far as part of the Poppins Book Nook ( <- link opens in new window)!

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Farm Small World Play

The book we decided to build an activity around was Cowboys by Lucille Recht Penner.  The girls loved this book and it was a great way to learn about cowboys and the West.  The illustrations keep the girls engaged and it’s a great book on the history of the old west and cowboys.

My daughter loves all things cowboy and farm so I grabbed a bunch of the farm toys she got from grandma and a few extra items to make up this simple small world play.

Materials needed for farm small world:

• Cows/Cowboy Little People
• Fisher-Price Little People Farm 
• Glass Gems
• Hay
• Schleich Horses

I got the hay bail at the local craft store and spread it out over our outside play table.  I then added all the farm toys we have laying around and some gems for the girls to use as pretend water for the animals.  That’s it!   Use whatever items you have on hand or check out this awesome DIY barn craft Crayon Box Chronicles made to go with her farm small world activity.

This was a hit! Hours of play!  My little cowgirl thought it was soooo cool to have the horses and hay with her farm toys. She literally spent hours playing with this all weekend! My daughter and the daycare kids loved learning and playing with the horses. They pretended to take care of the horses and work the farm. It’s so fun to watch!

Don’t forget to check out our Community Helpers themed recycling sensory bin or the pirate slime that we did as part of this book series!

Looking for more crafts and activities? Check out our index for 100+ plus kids activities! Find activities by theme, materials, skills, age and much more!