A is for Animals!

Learning about animals starts at an early age and extends throughout childhood.

There are so many different ways to help kids learn about animals! Reading books, going to a petting zoo, making a poem about them, seeing animals on TV shows, playing with animal toys.

Activities can be simplified to help kids in saying their first sounds of m, b, and n (for example: working with a child to produce the simple words “moo”, “baa”, or “neigh”); and activities can be more complex to work on shapes, colors, sizes, and sounds.

Today I want to share with you an activity that I use to work on farm animals and sounds. It is appropriate for young children just learning to make sounds and learning new words and can be adapted very easily.

This activity can be all about the animal sounds, or it can also be made more challenging to include the location of each animal.

If you want the simplified version, simply sing each phrase “The (animal) on the farm says”, below I have included the places for each animal.

The Animals at the Farm Say

(Sung to the tune Wheels on the Bus, adapted by Brianna Alley, MT-BC)

The cow in the meadow says moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo.

The cow in the meadow says moo, moo, moo all day long!

Additional verses:

The chicken in the coop says bawk bawk bawk.
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The horse in the stable says neigh, neigh, neigh.
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The sheep in the field says baa, baa, baa.

The pig in the pen says oink, oink, oink.

The cat in the house says meow, meow, meow.

The dog on the porch says woof, woof, woof

The duck in the pond says quack, quack, quack.

The farmer on the tractor says work, work, work.
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The repetition in the song is great for little ones just learning to make sounds. I find that children are more likely to sing along with repetition like this because it’s easy for them to pick up on.

Also, it gives you a chance to slow down and work specifically on the sounds you are working on, and reinforce saying it correctly with the fun song and repetition.

Feel free to adapt this song to include forest animals, jungle animals, birds, fish, you name it!

Another way to adapt this song is to make it a fill-in-the-blank song (“The ______ on the farm says moo, moo, moo” then ask, “What animal says moo?”).

This encourages children to learn both the animals and the sounds. If you really want to challenge your little one and have some fun, rotate asking the child for which animal makes the sound, and then what sound does the animal make.

I hope you enjoyed this little activity and have some fun adapting it to your own needs!