Hide and Match Farm Animal Puzzle Game

This week is Farm Week! We've shared a few farm animal crafts and activities over the past few years and I am excited to dive in a bit deeper and share some awesome farm themed children's books as well this week!

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For our Weekly Virtual Book Club for Kids we are featuring The Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle this week! To kick off the week we decided to play around with some farm animal pictures and put together a farm animal puzzle game. This activity introduces a few of the basic animals you might have on a farm and teaches their names. 

MATERIALS NEEDED FOR FARM ANIMAL GAME

This is an easy game to pull together. You only need a few materials. I prepped the game ahead of time.

• Farm animal printable 1
• Farm animal printable 2
• Farm animal printable 3
• White cardstock
• Glue
• Pieces of cardboard
• Scissors

Thanks My Cute Graphics for the images: http://www.mycutegraphics.com/

 

HOW TO MAKE & PLAY THE FARM ANIMAL GAME

To make the farm animal puzzle game you start by printing out the farm animal images and then cutting them out. I cut around the images but didn't do a really tight cut because I am all about keeping things easy and simple! Visible white borders are fine!

Once the animals (and objects- like the barn) are cut out, glue each picture onto a square piece of cardboard. The piece of cardboard doesn't have to be perfectly cut. Once the glue is dry, cut the cardboard and image into two pieces to make simple cardboard puzzles. You can cut diagonally, horizontally, vertically, or skiwampus! Whatever you want to do works! The goal is just to create simple farm animal puzzles. The cardboard base makes them easier to manipulate for little hands.

For older kids you could cut the pictures/cardboard into 3-4 pieces.

Once the pictures are cut up, you are ready to play!

TO PLAY

Start by hiding the puzzle pieces around one room in your house (or outside). Make sure you don't make them too hard to start. For toddlers and preschoolers I like to keep things only partially hidden so that the kids don't get bored too quickly and give up!

Encourage your kids to look for the puzzle pieces and then match the pieces together to complete the simple puzzles.

While you are playing, talk about the animals and farm objects that are in the pictures. Talk about the animals in the farm themed books you've read too! Discuss whether each animal was in The Little Blue Truck, or not.

This activity is a simple way to work on visual discrimination and matching while also getting little bodies moving!

MORE FARM THEMED ACTIVITIES

All of these posts will go live on October 10, 2016.

Alphabet Activities

Farm Animal Beginning Sounds and Bingo Game - Rainy Day Mum

Little Blue Truck ABC Animal Pick Up-Growing Book by Book

Farm Alphabet Scavenger Hunt - Sunny Day Family

Name Activities

Spell Your Name With The Little Blue Truck - To be a Kid Again

Number Activities

Play & Count Farm Animals - My Storytime Corner

Farm Animal I SPY & Graph Printable - School Time Snippets

Number Games Based on Little Blue Truck Books

Sensory Activities

Litttle Blue Truck Sensory Bin - Adventures of Adam

Cooking Activities

Haystacks Snack for Kids - Views From a Step Stool

Mud Pit Chip Dip - Preschool Powol Packets

Science Activities

Little Blue Truck Magnetic Farm Activity

Farm Animal Races - Inspiration Laboratories

Color Activities

Colour Sorting with Farm Animals - Clare's Little Tots

Pre-Writing Activities

Decorate a Farm Animal - Mama Smiles

Little Blue Truck Farm Animal Story Retelling - Powerful Mothering

Roll-a-Story Fun (Includes Character Printables)—Chickadee Lit

Movement Activities

Farm Themed Brain Breaks-Sugar Aunts

Hide & Match Farm Animal Puzzle Game- Toddler Approved

FARM THEMED BOOKS TO CHECK OUT

Featured Book:

The Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle

Additional Books:

What the Ladybird Heard by Julia Donaldson

Goodnight Tractor by Michelle Robinson

Maisy's Tractor by Lucy Cousins

Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown

Big Fat Hen by Keith Baker

How Big is a Pig? by Clare Beaton

The Little Red Hen by Byron Barton

Moo Baa La La La by Sandra Boynton

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin

Duck on a Tractor by David Shannon

Do you have any other favorite farm themed activities, books, or crafts that you can share?