Farm Babies

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!

🌿🌻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.

🌿🌻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!

🌿🌻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

“Back to the Farm” – Bari Koral
“Birds of a Feather” – Jessie Farrell & the Gumboot Kids
“Farm Song” – Laurie Berkner
“Goats” – Jessie Farrell & the Gumboot Kids
“Down on Grandpa’s Farm” – Raffi
“Sweetly Sings the Donkey” – Wee Sing
“Old MacDonald Had a Farm” – Nursery Rhymes 123
“I Love My Rooster” – Laurie Berkner
“Baa Baa Black Sheep” – Raffi
“Mary Had a Little Lamb” – Raffi
“Barnyard Song” – Valerie Smalkin
“I Do, I Do Love You (Pigs)” – Jessie Farrell & the Gumboot Kids
“Shake it Up (Cows)” – Jessie Farrell & the Gumboot Kids
“When You Get the Moos” – Brent Holms
“Good Night (Farm Lullaby)” – Cee Bee Teatime
“Over in the Meadow” – Charlie Hope
“I Know a Chicken” – Laurie Berkner
“Los Pollitos” – Elizabeth Mitchell
“The Farm Song” by Bari Koral

NIYN – Farm Babies on Spotify
NIYN – Farm Babies on YouTube
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.