Free Farm Animal Printables and Montessori-Inspired Activities

M0ntessori Shelves with Farm Animal Themed Activities

You’ll find Montessori-inspired farm animal themed numbers, letters, and and more (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my newsletter to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber) Note: The Montessori-inspired farm animal pack isn’t designed as a complete farm animal unit but as supplemental materials. I design the packs using realistic images that I’ve often looked for when preparing a unit study (such as font cards and phonogram cards featuring the letter and phonogram related to the theme and math cards with realistic images that fit the theme and can be adapted for math activities at a variety of levels.)

You could mix your farm animal themed activities among your shelves according to curriculum area. Or you could have a special farm animal themed area something like the one pictured. My shelves at the beginning of our unit have a mixture of skill levels. Many of the activities can be adapted for a variety of levels. Many of these are designed for early elementary as well as preschoolers. If you’re a homeschooler, just choose the activities that work for your child’s interests and ability levels. If you don’t have room for all the activities you’d like to do, simply rotate them.

Notice the framed art print Dutch Landscape with Cattle and Farm by Jacob van Strij, who lived 1756-1815. It’s a free download from Wikiart.

For our monthly featured art print, I purchased a Li’l DAVINCI art frame that opens in the front for easily changing a free art masterpiece printable or vintage illustration to fit with the month’s theme. The frame can be switched from horizontal to vertical without changing the hanger, which is perfect!

If you’re wondering about the rugs and rug box I use, both the rugs and wooden rug holder are from Montessori Services. I love the Montessori Services rugs and rug holder! I used to use an umbrella stand something like these. I loved that for 1-3 rugs, but I needed something different when I had more grandchildren and some projects that needed more than one rug.

Favorite Shelves, Trays, Baskets, and More for Montessori Homeschoolers

I often get asked about the trays, baskets, etc., that I use, so I published a post with many of the items. You can find lots of helpful resources here. They’re not all essential, so don’t feel you need to have everything. Just choose what’s best for your budget and your unique family’s needs. You’ll find more ideas in the Living Montessori Now Amazon shop

Farm Animal Themed Books for Kids

Even though I have books on shelves, I’m now keeping many of my themed books in a forward-facing display after placing a plant where the themed book basket was before. Most of my seasonal books are now in that book basket. 

For toddlers and preschoolers, about ¾ of the books I use are typically Montessori friendly (focusing on reality without smiling or talking animals or smiling or talking vehicles). This unit has many Montessori-friendly books.

Top Shelf of Main Themed Shelf: 

• Moo is a fun touch-and-feel book for toddlers that has flaps and pull tabs.
• Farm Animals!: A My Incredible World Picture Book for Children has lovely photos and easy-to-understand information.
• My Encyclopedia of Very Important Things is a great first encyclopedia for a variety of topics!
• My Book of Horses and Ponies: A Fact-Filled Guide to Your Equine Friends has gorgeous photographs and lots and lots of easy-to-understand information about horses and ponies.

Top Shelf of Forward -Facing Display:

• DK Smithsonian Picturepedia (beautiful photos and a fabulous reference book I use for many, many units!) has a very informative and appealing two-page spread about farm animals.
• Eric Carle’s Around the Farm (The book has sound buttons for bull, cow, goat, pig, sheep, lamb, donkey, horse, hen, turkey, chick, rooster, cat, dog, mouse, frog, duck, turtle, fish, crow, sparrow, owl, woodpecker, snake, rabbit, cricket, dragonfly, bee, butterfly, and the very hungry caterpillar. The turtle, fish, butterfly, and caterpillar make fun sounds but don’t actually make the sounds of those animals. The rest of the buttons make realistic animal sounds. My 22-month-old granddaughter LOVES this book!)

2nd Shelf:

• Animals on the Farm
• National Geographic Kids Farm Animals has easy-to-understand facts and gorgeous photographs. It’s Montessori friendly, of course!
• Scholastic Reader Level 2: Farm Animals

3rd Shelf:

• Silly Farm: An Easy Read Picture Book for Kids is pretty much what the title says. It’s a Montessori-friendly book that’s especially good for toddlers, young preschoolers, and children learning to read who’ll benefit from one sentence per page.
• A Home in the Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
• A Farm for Maisie

4th Shelf:

• The Perfect Nest
• I LOVE sing-along books, and so do all my grandkids. They were always popular when I was a Montessori teacher, too. Had a Little Roster adapted by John M Feierabend illustrates a fun, classic song and has a free MP3 you can download from the publisher, GIA Publications, Inc. Toddlers will often join in on the animal sounds.

Bottom Shelf:

• Two classic and endearing Montessori-friendly books, Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm and The Year at Maple Hill Farm, were originally published in 1974 and 1978. I used them in my Montessori school in the 1980s and with my now-adult kids!

In another book basket:

I absolutely love the Barefoot Books sing-along books! They include CDs and are favorites of my toddler grandkids. At least one of the books is requested daily or almost daily. (Note: many of the singalongs are available in Spanish!) The sing-along books aren’t Montessori-style books because of smiling animals, etc., but they’re lots of fun and often teach concepts as well as being an engaging singing activity.

Driving My Tractor is a fun sing-along and includes counting animals from 1-5.

The Farmyard Jamboree is a fun sing-along inspired by a Chilean folktale and includes counting by 2s.

Books from these blog posts: 

• The Best Farm Books for Kids
• The Best Duck and Duckling Books for Kids
• Favorite Books for a Horse Theme
• Free Lamb Printables and Montessori-Inspired Lamb Activities

You can see lots of farm animal books for kids here.

Moo Book with Farm Babies Figures and Cards

Moo is a fun touch-and-feel book for toddlers that has flaps and pull tabs.

The animal figures are from the Safari Ltd. Farm Babies TOOB.

Free Printable: Farm Babies Vocabulary Cards from Memorizing the Moments

This is a great activity for toddlers as well as young preschoolers. My 7 year-old grandson, Caleb, showed his sister (my 22-month-old granddaughter, Arabella) how to do the activity. Arabella loves Eric Carle’s Around the Farm book with animal sounds and got the book off the shelf so she could hear the animal sounds along with matching the animals.

Farm Animals Book with Farm Animal Adults and Babies Cards

Farm Animals!: A My Incredible World Picture Book for Children has lovely photos and easy-to-understand information.

Free Printable: Adult & Baby Animal Matching Activity Farm Edition Montessori by Raising Little Jess at TPT

Free Printable: Farm Animal Baby/Adult Matching Cards by Preschool Edventures at TPT is another great option with many farm animal babies and adults.

Farm Pages from My Encyclopedia of Very Important Things and Farm Animal 3-Part Cards

The book on the easel is the My Encyclopedia of Very Important Things, which is a great first encyclopedia for a variety of topics!

Free Printable: Farm Animal 3-Part Cards by Savvy Prints at TPT (These are available on both print and cursive.)

Sand Writing Tray for a Farm Animal Theme

Free Printables/g/ for goat and /k/ for kid (from my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my newsletter to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber). They’re available in print, D’Nealian, and cursive. 

You’ll see a variety of simple letter writing trays in my previous unit study posts. I often used the wooden tray from the Melissa & Doug Lace and Trace Shapes. You can use whatever tray or container work best for you, though.

I typically now use this lovely spelling/alphabet tray from FamilyTreeWW on Etsy. I like it for writing more than one letter or spelling words. (Note: That sand tray is currently unavailable, but you’ll find lots of other options for Montessori sand trays on Etsy.) I found some colored sand in 12 colors on Amazon that I started to use instead of salt or colored salt. I love it because it’s so soft and feels great! 

I added some Good Luck Mini Ranch Figures. 

ow in Cow Work

Free Printable: /ow/ phonogram in cow (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my newsletter to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

Free Printable: I Have, Who Has: OU & OW Freebie by The Glitzy Teacher at TPT

I have a post and video on how to introduce words starting with phonograms, even with very young children.

Matching Sandpaper Letters with Hen and Chick Alphabet Cards

Free Printable: Hen alphabet cards – available in print and cursive (part of my farm subscriber freebie pack from a previous unit, so just sign up for my newsletter to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)