Our Big Red Barn

This week we started our school-wide farm unit.  Last year I made a giant castle with 8 refrigerator boxes for our fairy tale unit. The kids loved it so I decided to make a barn this year.  I once again used plans from  Mr. McGroovy and I was able to reuse his box rivets that I had bought last year.  The barn only needed 3 refrigerator boxes and was really pretty simple to make.  Although it is not nearly as spectacular as the castle, the kids had a wonderful time playing in it today. 

I started by cutting 2 boxes (the lines don't have to be perfect).  I then made corner brackets (from a smaller box) and put the boxes together with the box rivets.  

The kids painted the barn using house paint (fortunately I have a red door at home) and paint pads (also from last year).  I then cut out the door and windows and had the brilliant idea to use white duck tape to add the trim around the door and windows.  Finally I laid the 3rd box across the top as the roof.  

In just a few hours we created a wonderful new play spot for our room.  I did learn a few things.. first, look for an independent appliance store for the boxes.  If they do their own deliveries, they will probably have several boxes every night.  Second, get 3 boxes that are all the same size.  I had one huge box.  The directions said to use the biggest box for the roof.  I had to cut it down and make several adjustments that I think would have been avoided if I had the same size boxes. Finally, as I said above, duck tape is wonderful for adding straight line details.  I didn't have my phone with me when the kids were playing in the barn but I can say they loved it...nothing better than special "kids-only" spaces when you're 5 years old.  

The Cutest Farm Bulletin Board

     This adorable 3D bulletin board is in our Science room.  Our science teacher Joanne always does the most wonderful projects with the kids. For this bulletin board, the kids started by creating the background with finger paints.  Each child then chose two animals to make and painted the toilet paper rolls they would need. The animals were inspired by Pinterest and specifically Amanda at Crafts by Amanda.

Amanda has very specific directions on her website.  Joanne modified most of the animals a little.  I think they are absolutely adorable.

Little pigs with button noses and curly pipe cleaner tales.

Sheep with mini marshmallow fleece.

Chicks and Chickens with feathers and pipe cleaners.

Puppy Dogs

Cows

The Horses required lots of wrapping  pipe cleaners  around pencils.

Cats in the Barn.

Vegetable garden made with pipe cleaners and tissue paper.

Ducks made from pasta shells.

The barn.

SO CUTE!

I've blogged about other cute ideas from our farm unit (including other bulletin board ideas) here.  If you are here from Pinterest, please check out the rest of the blog and follow me. Thanks:)

Our Farm Unit in Pictures

Last week we completed a School Wide Farm Unit. We had a lot of fun (although it did feel very rushed...there are just way too many things that I want to do!)  I haven't had time to blog regularly but I figured that I could at least post some pictures of the wonderful things we did.

Our Farm Sensory Bin.  I replaced our sand with green rice (I used vinegar and green food coloring to color the rice) and beans and lots of farm toys. I liked this better than other sensory bins I've done in plastic bins because it was so much bigger.  The kids loved it!

Old McDonald's Bulletin Board.  The kids really enjoyed making the animals for this bulletin board. The animals are similar to ones I did with TLC patterns.  I didn't follow anyones pattern but instead just cut lots of rectangles with the paper cutter. The kids then cut corners to make circles or ovals and used little dots of glue to put the pieces together.  The pattern for the pig is here.

Farm Market Baskets.  I found the idea for these cute baskets of vegetables and fruits on Kim's Blog Kinders by Kim.

 

I think I may have made them more complicated that they needed to be but the kids really did enjoy making them.  I started by drawing the templates for a potato, corn, strawberry, carrot and peas.  I then put the following text on the appropriate vegetable:

My carrot is a _______ that I can eat. (root)

My peas are ______ that I can eat. (seeds)

My strawberry is a _________ that I can eat. (flower)

 (I researched this, and indeed, the strawberry is part of the flower)

My potato is a _______ that I can eat. (root)

My corn is a _______ that I can eat. (seed)

I photocopied the vegetables onto 11x14 pieces of paper.  I then glued 3 sides to a piece of colored paper.  (I originally cut out the vegetable and then realized I didn't need to and I just quickly glued the fruit onto the colored paper).  The kids filled in what part of the vegetable we eat and sponge painted any 3 of the vegetables. If they chose the corn, they painted bubble wrap and then carefully turned ti over and pushed it onto the corn to print the corn kernals. 

After they dried, the kids cut out the vegetable or fruit and then stuffed it with fiber fill.  I stapled the top (with little green leaves).  The kids then wrote their name on this poem:

_____________

How does your garden grow?

With ________, _________ and 

__________ all in a row.

I originally planned to have them write the names of the vegetables but decided they would have trouble fitting the words on the lines.  Instead, they glued the proper word on the lines. Although these took quite a bit of prep work, I would probably do them again because they involved a lot of cutting, writing and following directions practice and the kids really enjoyed the painting, stuffing and the final product.

Planting a Pattern.  My class LOVES anything involving patterns.  Unfortunately, the patterns they have been creating recently have become so complicated, I was worried they were forgetting the important repetition feature of patterns.  I solved this when we did these bean patterns by having them roll a pattern first and then show me how they could do the pattern with beans.  They were very good at it. I found these adorable Planting Patterns at Froggy Friends Fun.

The Life Cycle of a Chicken.  The kids made these adorable models of the life cycle of a chicken in Science.

Acting Out Mrs. Wishy Washy. We had lots of fun acting out the story of Mrs. Wishy Washy.

Making Butter. We made delicious butter.  I put heavy cream and a little salt in 4 glass jars.  We then turned on the music and started to dance.  When I turned off the music we froze and then passed the jar to our neighbor so he or she could take a turn shaking.  It was lots of fun!  The music we danced to was
Jazz for Kids: Sing Clap Wiggle & Shake. What a perfect cd for a farm unit.  It included Ella Fitzgerald singing Old McDonald and Louis Jordan singing Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens.  It is impossible not to dance to this music.

Farm Garden.  The kids grew grass in science and then used it for play with little animals.  They really enjoy this too.

Vegetables Growing Underground.  I LOVE melted crayons.  These vegetable were "painted" in science with melted crayons  (pieces of butcher paper were dipped in crayons that were melted on a piece of foil on a hot tray).

Our Big Red Barn. Of course the kids favorite part of our farm unit was probably the big cardboard barn we made.  You can read more about it here.

Our Life-Size Gingerbread House

UPDATED 2016

I made another gingerbread house this year. Once again, I worked by myself and it took about 2 hours.  I took photos of the process this time.  My 2016 comments are italicized.

The kids are LOVING the life-size gingerbread that I build for our classroom.

For the past couple of years I have made some sort of box structure for our classroom.  Here are pictures of my previous castles and big red barn:

In each case I used Mr. McGroovy's plans and most importantly his special box rivets.  The box rivets cost less than $20 for a box. The rivets are reusable but I couldn't find my rivets from last year so I ordered more from Amazon Prime and got them in one day.  Because there are only 2 seams, the house could probably be connected with tape but I know the rivets will stand up to  20 rambunctious pre-k students so I think they are well worth the cost.

Mr. McGroovy's box rivets

For my other projects I downloaded plans from Mr. McGroovy.  For the gingerbread house I pretty much just winged it.
I got 2 large refrigerator boxes and 2 dishwasher boxes from a local appliance store that does its own deliveries.  If you can find an appliance store like this it is easy to collect the boxes.  I suggest you call around.  The trick is to bring a utility knife with you and cut off the top and bottom of the box.  It is then easy to fold the box and fit it in your car.

This is an illustration from McGroovy's website showing how to fold boxes to fit in car.

I brought the boxes to school and cut them open so I basically had large pieces of cardboard with 3 seams. I took the 2 large boxes and cut them like this (the 3 vertical lines are the box folds):

A couple hints - put extra cardboard under the piece you are cutting to avoid cutting into your floor.  Second, you don't have to be at all exact.  In this picture, I am using a piece of cardboard to make the line as I cut the box down/

My boxes weren't the same size  but working with cardboard boxes is very forgiving (so are  my little ones who don't care at all that the back of the house is a little narrower than the front:)
In 2016, I was only able to find one intact refrigerator box. I got a second but it had been cut in three pieces. It wasn't a problem to put the pieces together with the rivets.

This is one of the rivets connecting the side to the back.

I laid the boxes back down and cut our windows and a door.  Once again, don't stress about it being perfect.  I cut out one window and then used that cutout as a template and cut around it for the other windows. 

I cut out windows and a door.

I then stood the boxes up and connected the front shorter sides to the back shorter sides with a couple of rivets. This is what the house looked like after I put the 2 big boxes together:

corner brackets

I cut the corner of a smaller box to reinforce the corners.

This is a photo of me adding the corner reinforcement.  You can see that I use the awl to make a hole and then  put the rivet in.

The house is strengthened with corner brackets made from the corners of small boxes.  If you look closely, you can see the brackets in the corners.
The roof was made with the 2 smaller boxes that I cut to the same size and riveted together.  It would have been easier to use another big box but I didn't want to go back to the appliance store.(I had to use 2 boxes for the roof again in 2016 :( 

The roof is attached by cutting flaps in the roof near the front and back walls. Attach the flaps to the walls using rivets to secure the roof.

Before attaching the roof, the kids (and teachers) cut close to 100 paper plates in half and then cut out the centers to make the icing for the roof.  I then hot glued the plates to the roof and put the roof on the house.  The kids used the plate centers and other plates and cardboard to create LOTS of candy decorations.  Most of them have been sprinkled with clear glitter when the paint was still wet so the house looks especially sugary and delicious. I have been attaching candy with a glue gun each day after school.

In 2016 I hot glued paper plate icing along the top of the roof before  I tried it out on the house.  As I said, I don't measure too much so I just cut the roof down after I added it to the house.

This is the house ready for a few more rivets (I need someone inside and outside to connect the roof.) This is what the kids will see when they come to school. 

I'll add more photos of how they embellish this year's house.

Paper plate icing on the roof.  The hole in the roof is the little flap I cut and attached to the front of the house with a rivet. 

lots of glittery candy - that little orange gummy worm might be my very favorite decoration :) The black dot is the rivet holding the corner bracket in place.

adding glitter

If you have any questions you can email me at gofflyn@gmail.com. 

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