Free Resources, Occupational Therapy

Big Red Barn Book Craft

by Colleen Beck
August 31, 2015

This month for our Book Club Play Date series we’re sharing a craft based on the book, Big Red Barn. What a fun book for preschool aged children! (And, don’t tell, but my older kids really got into this book, too!) We made pretend play Farm Animals Puppets and a barn craft puppet show stage, perfect for farm pretend play. This fun craft goes perfectly with a fun farm animal book!

Big Red Barn Book activity with a barn craft and farm animal puppets. Preschool (and older kids!) love this activity for pretend play and using their imagination about what the animals do on the farm.

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Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown is a quiet and calming book with it’s tone and rhythmic text. The Farm is full of life and this book is all about the animals. We see how the animals play and explore while the children are away. The detailed illustrations are creative and my kids loved looking for the tiny mice or butterfly on the pages of the book. This was a new book to us, but it quickly became a hit in our house. Margaret Wise Brown also authored Goodnight Moon (one of our favorites! Remember our Goodnight Moon Goodnight Moon Memory Game?) It was fun to talk about the author and recall parts of Goodnight Moon that appear in this book–the barn in the picture, the mouse, and the moon. We wondered if the Big Red Barn from our story was the same as the barn in the picture in Goodnight Moon. We love coming up with extension activities based on children’s books (more than a little bit!) and this book and activity rose to the top of our favorites!

Big Red Barn craft

You’ll need a few materials for your barn craft and puppets:

Colored Craft Sticks
(We received ours from our friends at www.craftprojectideas.com)

Glue

Printer Paper
Our Free Barn Animals Puppets Coloring Sheet (Get them HERE.)

Crayons

Scissors (This) is my favorite brand for kids!)

Clear Tape

Red cardstock

Barn Craft

First, we made the barn craft. Arrange the red craft sticks like we did in the picture above. Use glue to stick the top and bottom sticks on top of the vertical sticks. I made a barn as my preschooler copied the steps beside me. This was a good way to practice direction following with visual cues. I was sure to craft my barn slowly so she could follow along with hers. Count out the Popsicle sticks as you go. We used 12 red sticks all together. You’ll want to make your barn on a piece of paper or waxed paper for easy transporting as it dries.

Then we used a piece of Red cardstock to make the barn roof. Simply cut the roof into an angled shape. I had the roofs already cut out and showed my daughter how to glue it onto the back of the Popsicle stick barn. You’ll need to let the barn dry for a few hours or overnight. Just let it rest right on the paper.

Farm animals coloring sheet free printable

Next, color in our Barn Animal Coloring Sheet. You can get the free printable HERE.

Cut out the animals and tape onto craft sticks.

Big Red Barn Book activity with a barn craft and farm animal puppets. Preschool (and older kids!) love this activity for pretend play and imagination.

Once the barn has dried, you’ll be ready to play Barn Puppet Show with the farm animals. Act out the story in Beg Red Barn, or create your own farm animal stories. We had a lot of fun with our barn puppet animals.

Looking for more Big Red Barn activities? See what the Book Club Playdates team have created to go along with this book. With a snack, game, and sensory activity, you’ll have this book covered for your Preschool Book Club:

Farm Haystack Snack from Fun-a-Day

Farm Sensory Small World from Still Playing School

Farm Animals Ring Toss Game from Craftulate

More activities based on books that you will love (Because we sure did!):

Freight Train Color Snack | Ish Block Sculptures | Make Way For Ducklings Sensory Play | Goodnight Moon Memory Game

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