Old McDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o & on that farm he had a cow..... And it goes on and on and on it seems like around this house lately. Old McDonald's been super popular around our house lately so I decided to make an Active World Tray around the song.
Tip: focus your activities to your children's current interests as it helps to keep them engaged longer
What I loved about creating this tray is I was able to use things that we had already had around the house. I didn't have to go out and purchase anything additional. I also threw this together in like 10 minutes with no preparation ahead of time. It was fun because Lily helped me put it all together while Mason napped and she loved being creative with mommy and using her imagination to help me set it up.
Tip: let your kiddos help set up the trays. they come up with some amazing ideas that I never would think of, it increases engagement and encourages creativity. It is also nice because it is time that Lily and I get to spend together the 2 of us.
Supplies you will need for this tray:
- active world tray or a space to set up the activity
- farm animals
- farm
- sticks, rocks etc.
- construction paper
What we did first was use a shredder to shred the different coloured paper. We used green for the grass, blue for water and then some neutral for hay. You can get creative and use whatever colours your want. I taped a piece of brown paper to the tray for the mud puddle and used some sticks to frame the area. If you don't have a shredder you could rip up the paper or just tape full pieces down to the play area. Some alternatives you could use are; oatmeal, real or fake grass, real mud/dirt, sand and/or coloured rice. You could also add a pond with some water in it.
I removed the sticks once Mason joined us to play as he kept trying to put them in his mouth. I also used different types of animals in the tray. Some of them moved and made noises which he found funny. However, Lily enjoyed playing with the regular animals more. So if you are looking for ways to make the activity fun for various ages I would recommend using different types of animals in the tray.
Once you've created the different areas on the tray or activity space, Lily and I talked about where on the farm you would typically find each animal and placed them there. We talked about different foods they would eat and animals they may play with. It was fun to have different conversations about the topic with her.
Be prepared though, once you give your child the go to play it will get messy. The paper stayed in the tray for the most part but once Mason got in there he was trailing it all over the place. Don't worry though its nothing a quick sweep won't fix! I also like that the paper is recyclable so we could throw it in the blue box or you could keep it for another day if you wanted.
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