The Little Red Hen's Homemade Bread {Farm Week}

Hello friends!  This week we are learning all about one of our favorite things...this is Farm Week!  In an effort to read more with my kids I thought it would be really fun to read the classic The Little Red Hen, and try making our very own homemade bread to go with it!

 

 

This was such a fun morning activity to do with my kids!  First up, we got to sit down together and read The Little Red Hen.  This book is not only fun for the little kids AND teaches a great lesson about hard work, but it also explains all the steps that go into making bread.  Starting with sowing a seed all the way to grinding up wheat to make flour and finally baking bread, it was cool to see the kids understand how the wheat we saw growing at the farm last week becomes fresh, warm bread!

 

Once we were done reading we made my favorite white bread recipe.  This recipe is not only delicious but it is SO simple, my kids really did most of the work.

 

Amish White Bread Recipe

 

2 C warm water

2/3 C white sugar

1 1/2 T active dry yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 C vegetable oil

6 C flour

 

In a large bowl dissolve the sugar in warm water, then stir in the yeast.  Allow to proof until the yeast resembles a creamy foam.

 

 

Mix in salt and oil, then add flour one cup at a time.

 

 

Kneed dough until smooth and then place in a well-oiled bowl, turning to coat.  Cover with cloth and let rise for one hour, or until double in size.  Then comes the best part...split your dough in half and let your kids go wild punching and kneeding!!

 

 

Britton's face kills me :)  Once you are done punching, shape into two loaves and put into well-oiled pans.  Allow to rise for 30 more minutes and then bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

 

 

Once our 30 minutes were up I let Avrie butter the tops and then the hardest part...waiting for it to cool enough to dig in! ;)

 

 

There you have it, a seriously fun way to bring books to life with your kids and learn a little bit more about the farm!  Thank you so much for stopping by Blue Skies Ahead today, hope you have a fantastic day!!

 

 

 

 

 

Hand Print Sheep Craft {Farm Week}

 Today I am sharing with you guys a fun, simple farm craft you and your little ones will love!  This was great for my kids because they could all participate, the 2-year old up to the 6-year old.

Here's how you make a Handprint Sheep!

All we needed to make these darling, fuzzy sheep was some black construction paper, glue, googly eyes, and White Poms sent to us by our friends at CraftProjectIdeas.com.  I love their pack of white Poms because it comes with a bunch of different sized poms.  They work wonderfully because you have different sizes you can use to fill in smaller spaces :)

So to start off you help your kids trace those cute little hands!

Once you have your hands either cut them out or let your kids work on those scissor skills a little bit ;)

Once you have your hands cut out let your kids go to town gluing poms all over the palm of the hand cut-out.  Make sure they don't cover any fingers or thumb.

Finally let your kids pick out their favorite googly eye and stick it right on the thumb, finishing off your cute, cuddly sheep!

I LOVED how these cute sheep turned out and had a blast making them with my kids!  Thanks so much for checking out all of our Farm Week fun and have a wonderful weekend!!

Homemade Butter {Farm Week}

Hello everyone!  Today we did a really fun activity that not only provided fun and learning...but a yummy snack too!

After visiting the farm earlier we learned all about cows and milk.  I thought it would be fun to take it a step further and make some homemade butter with the kiddies and they absolutely loved it!

This was such a simple activity, but the kids thought it was so cool!

All you need to make your own butter is a glass jar and a carton of heavy whipping cream.  We filled our jar about 3/4 of the way full and then made sure our lid was on SUPER tight!

Once you have your jar ready to go let your kids go crazy shaking that thing!

Now this does take a little bit if time.  As you keep shaking you will see the cream start to get really foamy.  At that point I had to dump a little it out so we could keep shaking.  A few minutes after that it really started to separate and our butter was almost ready!

All that liquid left over is totally normal.  I dumped it out but you could save it and use it as buttermilk in any number of yummy recipes :). At this point you can also add a little bit of salt for flavor and preservation.  We like it just fine without it, but if you make a lot you will probably want to add a bit.

Then comes the fun part...eating it!!

The kids thought it was so neat that the liquid cream had turned into a soft butter perfect for spreading!  We happened to have a delicious loaf of homemade bread handy and BOY was it all tasty!!

I would definitely try this fun activity out with your kids!  It's quick and simple, plus it helps kids learn and experience a fun and yummy aspect of farms :)

Thanks so much for visiting Blue Skies Ahead today, check back tomorrow for a sheep craft and maybe another fun snack too ;)

Printable Farm Scavenger Hunt!

 Today we are kicking off Farm Week with some simple printables to make your visit to the farm a little more educational and fun for your kids!

First up I made this printable for my 1st and 3rd graders.  Since they can get a little bored quicker than the younger kids I wanted to encourage them to learn something new :). Next to each animal they wrote down one new fact they learned.  This is also a great way for my girls to practice their writing and spelling. 

For my 2 and 4 year old I wanted something much more simple, so they would just circle each animal as they saw it.  We also talked about what letter each animal starts with and what they say :)

I always try to laminate these and stick them on clipboards to make it as simple as possible :). 

The kids loved their scavenger hunts and I think even learned something new!

Eee-i-ee-i-O... Farm week kick-off!

Hello, hello!!

Things here are just rolling along.  I am a whopping 9 weeks along and pretty much just trying to survive ;)

I did finally get on some medication and it is making a huge difference, so thanks to my new friend Zofran...I actually planned some fun things to do with the kids this week!

And what better way to start off our fun week of all things Farm...then actually going to visit our local farm.

How cute are these little munchkins?!  That's Britton trying to get the goats to talk to him...not too successful ;)

Avrie could NOT get enough of the animals, if she would have been able to climb through the fence and play with them she would have!

 

 One really cool thing we were able to see was a sheep getting its very own haircut!  My kids thought it was so cool, and it gave us the chance to talk about what a sheeps wool is used for.  I also thought I would like one of those head restraints for when I have to cut MY little guys hair ;)

I don't know what it is...but whenever we go anywhere my kids are automatically starving.  As soon as we saw a few animals the kids started asking for snacks...luckily for once I was prepared :)

I thought it would be fun to bring snacks that would grow on a farm, and talk about that with the kids.  We had baby carrots, apples, string cheese and homemade pumpkin bread slices.  It was fun to explain to the kids that string cheese is made from milk, which comes from cows!!  Flour comes from wheat which is used to make bread and is grown by farmers!  These things all seem so obvious, but to a little kid, all they know is you walk into a grocery store and pick things off the shelves.  Its fun to teach them a little bit about how much we need farms and farmers too.

My little jailbirds ;)

Kids favorite part of the farm?  Pony rides of course!!

All in all...a great way to kick off our Farm Week!

Check back tomorrow for some more fun, SIMPLE ways to enjoy and teach your kids about farms.  I may not be at 100%...but I am learning how to make it work ;)

Farm Week

Farm Week was pretty successful! I found some fantastic new resources I can't wait to share with you and we did some fun activities that our entire family enjoyed :) Get ready for picture overload!

First up we enjoyed reading Eric Carle's The Very Busy Spider. This is a darling book that shows all the different animals you will see at the farm and what sounds they make. My kids loved taking turns looking through it and making the different animal noises that went with each animal.

There's no better way to learn about a farm then to actually go to one! We headed off on Monday to see all the different animals we were going to be learning about.

We recently discoverd a discovery area at the farm that is SO fun for the kids! They learn all about how food is planted, harvested, delivered to stores and then purchased and brought home. They can plant the seeds, pick them, and put them on the truck to go to the store. My kids loved every bit of it!

Once we got done playing there we went to feed some of the animals and practice the animal sounds we had read all about that morning! Here were some of our favorites...

A trip to the farm would not be complete without pony rides

And of course snacktime. I made sure to bring snacks that were grown on a farm to reinforce the idea that our food comes from farms. Fresh fruits and veggies for us! :)

Later on in the week we learned all about pigs one day. I found this fun craft online HERE. You can print off your very own pig template and then she used brown paint to simulate the pigs rolling in mud. I thought it would be more fun to use chocolate pudding...then the kids could REALLY get good and messy! And they did!!

Another really simple activity we did was to use the barn that we made for our A"cow"ntable Family Home Evening earlier in the week. Then I got out all of our Little People animals and had the kids put the farm animals in the barn and all the other animals on the table. It was a good way for them to practice sorting and reinforce what animals are found on a farm.
Finally I found this amazing website, 2 Teaching Mommies, that has free printable themed units for children! I printed off their entire farm unit and was thrilled with what it included. The great thing was they had two seperate units for younger and older children...so there really was something for everyone! This particular worksheet had all the different farm animals and the color they were supposed to be. It was a great way to work on colors as well as the different farm animals.

It was a great week and I think the kids learned alot. Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a wonderful week and keep checking back :) I am going to have a fun family service project idea, and a giveaway for all my wonderful followers!