Saturday, January 22, 2011

Old MacDonald Interactive Book Download

This month in preschool we are doing a very fun Farm Theme. I wanted to teach the students the familiar song, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", but I also wanted to send something home with them that they could use to practice the song in a fun way. That is when I came up with the idea of doing an interactive book to go along with this classic song. The Old MacDonald Interactive Book was very simple to make and assemble, and it was a big hit with my students and parents!
This is the cover that one of my students made. I had them color a picture of a barn and glue it onto the front of a piece of construction paper. CLICK HERE for similar free barn coloring pages you can print out to make the cover. For the inside of the "Old MacDonald" book I had the students glue the lyrics to the song. You can CLICK HERE to download a copy of these lyrics. On the right hand side of the book (which uses another piece of construction paper)I attached a piece of printed scrapbook paper that resembled a fence. I stapled the sides and bottom to form a pocket that could store the farm animals. You could also have your child or student glue or tape the pocket on as well.

The students then colored an cut out the following farm animals: sheep, goat, pig, cow, and chicken. You can CLICK HERE to download a copy of the farm animals. They are different than the ones pictured in the sample for copyright reasons. I have included in this download a page of "cute" farm animals and more "realistic" farm animals for your little ones to color. That way you have a choice.
After the book was completed I whole punched the sides and bound it together with yarn. A very simple yet quiet durable way to bind a book together.
The last thing my students did was add a cute farm animal sticker to the pocket to spruce it up a little. :0)
We then practiced singing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" and as we sang about a particular farm animal the students would pull it out of their pocket and play with it.
Reflection: The only thing I might change with this book is to possibly switch the order of the pages. I might add the lyrics to the front cover and then put the barn image on the inside of the book. That way it is easier for the students to interact with the barn, farm animals, and pocket.
Let me know if you use this idea at home or school and if you have created a simple interactive book of your own. Enjoy!
Shauna

5 comments :

Unknown said...

I can't wait to see it!

Amanda said...

I will definitely be using this in my homeschooling with Grace :)

Melissa (Wallick) Larson said...

This is a great idea. Thanks so much for sharing.

Melissa (Wallick) Larson said...

I love this idea! Thanks so much for sharing. This will be a lot fun to do with the kids!!!

Melissa (Wallick) Larson said...

I love this idea! Thanks so much for sharing. This will be a lot fun to do with the kids!!!