My daughter is now 18 months old and loves animals. We don’t have a pet, but she loves seeing dogs during our walks around the neighborhood. She also loves watching the animals at the zoo. I decided to make an animal activities focusing on farm animals. On our shelf we have:

Cow and the Black Pom-Poms –  simple craft activity for motor skills development and sensory play.

Materials are pretty simple:

  • black pom-poms
  • glue
  • a coloring page of a cow

Let your little one apply glue to the picture. Mia loves using glue. Don’t restrict, just allow them apply the glue anywhere they want (as long as it is within the table or you can use tray). This little table is from Ikea and Mia does her art/craft activities there so I’m pretty relaxed about mess.

Sheep and the Wool

I mentioned above that Mia loves using glue.  So we did work on the sheep craft too and used cotton balls as wool.

Melissa & Doug Farm Sound Blocks 6-in-1 Puzzle With Wooden Tray – This is a great two-block puzzle: pair the back and front ends of an animal within the neat box tray – and the appropriate, most realistic animal sound is emitted – a great surprise, and repeatable for six times in all. Mia loves this activity but she still needs my help when pairing them.

Melissa & Doug Hide and Seek Farm Wooden Activity Board With Barnyard Animal Magnets – This is my daughter’s favorite toy. She simply never gets bored of opening and closing the flaps. Great toy for refining fine motor skills. There are many different farm animals and it is a good tool to help learn animal names and sounds together. Also good to play memory games.

Orchard Toys Farmyard Heads and Tails Game – This game is the perfect first game for any toddler and, as with all of the Orchard Toys games we have, we would highly recommend it.

Farm Animals Matching Cards – Mia was attentive for the first four animals and wouldn’t settle right after.  I took that as a sign of tiredness so we need to stop and did it the next day.  And yes, she was still interested and even knows the routine of placing the cards! When she is a bit older I will use Three Period Lesson for this. To know more about it read it here.

Transferring Chicks into Plastic Container – fun activity that every child will enjoy.

Melissa & Doug 20 Wooden Animal Magnets in a Box – This is an excellent buy for toddlers from 18 months. My daughter loves to move them from the fridge to various hiding places, and is learning the animals’ names and the noises they make. For this particular activity I’ve selected farm animals and add little magnet board.

Books about Farm Animals – there are so many but those are my favorite:

My First Farm: Let’s Get Working by DK Publishing

Baby Touch and Feel Farm Animals by DK

What the Ladybird Heard by Julia Donaldson

Oh Dear! by Rod Campbell

And that’s it! There’s usually 3-4 of these out at one time, I rotate as Mia loses interest in what’s on the shelves, or if I notice that she is gravitating toward a specific skill.

Don’t forget to pin this for later!

L xoxo

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