Nature In Your Nurture

Books

🌿🌻Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown (illustrated by Felicia Bond)
This classic story introduces readers to all of the animals on the farm– and many classic barnyard features. It’s just descriptive enough to paint a clear picture of farm life through the cycle of the day, and Felicia Bond’s simple illustration style goes well together with the simple text.

🌿🌻Who’s Hiding on the Farm by Katharine McEwen
This lift-the-flap board book features short facts about many farm animals. Learn about sheep, pigs, chickens, goats, and many more in this beautifully-illustrated book!

🌿🌻Moo, Moo, Peekaboo! by Jane Dyer
This peek-through board book was a classic from my childhood. Search each picture for the farm animal peeking out from the next page!

🌿🌻Barn in Winter by Chambrae Griffith (illustrated by Taia Morley)
With wonderful rhythm and rhyme, this beautifully illustrated board book explores a farm during a winter storm. The snow-covered pens and pastures of a farm sit quiet and empty as the animals take shelter in the warm safety of the barn.

🌿🌻Barn in Spring by Chambrae Griffith (illustrated by Taia Morley)
This board book combines consistent rhythm and rhyme with soft and vibrant watercolor illustrations to showcase the arrival of spring on a farm. As winter recedes, birds return, flowers bloom, and animals emerge from the barn with their babies to enjoy the daytime outdoors before returning to the shelter of the barn for the night.

🌿🌻L is for Llama by DK Publishing (illustrated by Livi Gosling)
This illustrated Animal Alphabet board book features alliterative facts about llamas, from the mountains of South America to farm pastures at home (where they guard other livestock).

🌿🌻Wiggle! March! by Kaaren Pixton
This textless Indestructibles book for babies features beautiful illustrations of a farmyard, including a cow, horse, goat, turkey, chickens, and more!

Daisy Comes Home by Jan Brett
A little girl named Mei Mei strives to keep her six hens happy, but little Daisy’s nights are a misery of bullying and sleeping on the ground. A misadventure carries the little hen to new startling experiences that teach her –and Mei Mei– to stand their ground.

Piney: The Goat Nanny by Leanne Lauricella (illustrated by Jill Howarth)
In this illustrated true tale, a young pig finds his calling comforting and rehabilitating orphaned or disabled baby goats at the Goats of Anarchy farm sanctuary in New Jersey.

The Goat with Many Coats by Leanne Lauricella (illustrated by Jill Howarth)
This illustrated book tells the story of Prospect, a tiny and underdeveloped orphaned goat nursed back to health by Leanne and Piney at Goats of Anarchy farm sanctuary. Piney provides the young goat with comfort and support while Leanne–and his fans–provide a multitude of coats to keep the little goat warm until his fur grows in.

Angel and Her Wonderful Wheels by Leanne Lauricella (illustrated by Jill Howarth)
In this illustrated story, baby goat Angel comes to the Goats of Anarchy farm sanctuary after losing her back legs to frostbite. When she arrives, she’s comforted by Piney the pig. One day, Leanne finds a solution for her mobility and orders her a special cart so that she can run outside with the other goats!

🌻Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin (illustrated by Betsy Lewin)
This silly tale of Farmer Brown and his striking, typewriting cows introduces children to the idea of collective bargaining and labor negotiations, as the hens and chickens refuse to provide milk and eggs until their demands are met. I’ve read this book for more than a decade, and it occurs to me only now that offering up their only means of advocacy in exchange for having their needs met might not be in the animals’ best interest… I now like the ending all the more for it.

Click Clack Peep by Doreen Cronin (illustrated by Betsy Lewin)
Farmer Brown and his livestock return in this tale of a new farm baby who simply will not sleep, and whose boundless enthusiasm is keeping everyone else from doing so! Duck returns as our barnyard hero to save the night, if not the farm.

Some Pig: A Charlotte’s Web Picture Book by E. B. White (illustrated by Maggie Kneen)
This adaptation of the classic children’s novel follows Wilbur through his days as Fern’s baby piglet until the time comes to go to another farm. It neatly skips around any themes of death that precede this section of the story.

Creative Art Opportunities

🐣Puffy white paint on black paper
🐣Mud or brown paint with pink paper
🐣Black spot collage with white paper
🐣Painting with loose straws or thin bundles of hay
🐣Cotton ball collages on cardboard

Hands On Experiences

⛅️Make sounds for farm animals
⛅️Milk a rubber glove “udder”
⛅️Explore loose straw/hay in sensory bin
⛅️Explore loose oats or cracked corn in sensory bin
⛅️Explore farm animal figurines (Toymany has some high-quality sets)
⛅️Use blocks to build a barn or fence for farm animals indoors⛅️
⛅️Open a raw egg for older children (or a hard-boiled egg for younger children)
🌿 Hide wooden eggs or real eggs around the backyard for children to collect in a basket
🌿Use sticks to build a pasture for farm animal toys outdoors
🌿Visit a family farm to see cows, sheep, or pigs
🌿Visit a hobby farm to see goats, horses, or donkeys
🌿Visit a neighbor with a chicken coop

Songs to Sing and Learn

“Down on Grandpa’s Farm” – This song was written by Raffi, though the tune is borrowed from a French children’s song. I’m not sure I’ve ever sang it the same way twice, since I get to make up the color, size, and pronouns of the animal anew each time. I also love making realistic animal sounds for each verse!

We’re on our way, we’re on our way, on our way to Grandpa’s farm
We’re on our way, we’re on our way, on our way to Grandpa’s farm.

Down on Grandpa’s farm there is a big white duck
Down on Grandpa’s farm there is a big white duck
The duck, she makes a sound like this: “… QUACK! QUACK!”
The duck, she makes a sound like this: “… QUACK! QUACK!”

We’re on our way, we’re on our way, on our way to Grandpa’s farm.
We’re on our way, we’re on our way, on our way to Grandpa’s farm.

Down on Grandpa’s farm there is a….

“Sweetly Sings the Donkey” – Traditional English children’s song of unknown origin

Sweetly sings the donkey at the break of day
If you do not feed him, this is what he’ll say:
“Hee-haw! Hee-haw! Hee-haw! Hee-haw!

(Or the version my grandmother learned from her father:)

Sweetly sings the donkey as he eats his hay.
If you do not feed him, he will run away.
“Hee-haw! Hee-haw! Hee-haw, hee-haw, hee-haw!”

“I Love My Rooster” – An American folk song by Bradley Kincaid, it’s been sung many different ways. The song is cumulative, so you can add as many verses as you can remember back:

I love my rooster. My rooster loves me.
And I feed my rooster on the green-berry tree
And my little rooster sings “Cockadoodle-doo
Dee doodley-doodley-doodley-doo”

I love my cow. My cow loves me.
And I feed my cow on the green-berry tree
And my little cow says “Mooo!”
And my little rooster sings “Cockadoodle-doo
Dee doodley-doodley-doodley-doo”

I love my pig. My pig loves me.
And I feed my pig on the greenberry tree
And my little pig says “Oink”
And my little cow says “Mooo!”
And my little rooster sings “Cockadoodle-doo
Dee doodley-doodley-doodley-doo”

“Baa Baa Black Sheep“

Baa, Baa, black sheep
Have you any wool?
Yes, sir, yes, sir
Three bags full
One for the master
One for the dame
One for the little boy
Who lives down the lane
Baa, baa, black sheep
Have you any wool?
Yes, sir, yes, sir
Three bags full

Alternately:
One for your sweater
One for your rug
One for your blanket
To keep you warm and snug

“Old MacDonald“

“Mary Had a Little Lamb“

NIYN – Farm Babies on Spotify
All playlists are works in progress and are actively curated when I have a unit in play or preparation, so new songs may appear and old songs may be removed if they don’t suit my designs.