Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 19
Old McDonald had a Farm
This is one of the most popular songs about farm animals and the sounds they make, but did you know that its origin traces back to an English playwright in 1706 who used it originally for an opera?
The song as we know it today was established around 1925 and there are many online versions now. When I first learnt the song from lyrics and by ear there always were a dog and a cat included which nowadays seem to be sometimes missing in video clips.
As for the animals featured these are typical farm animals from the UK and Germany as well as other countries around the world. Depending on where you are from, you might or might not have seen some of the animals roaming around in fields or on a farm.
Quite many of the books in Pre–Kindergarten show these animals and we were the lucky recipient of additional animal themed books through the kind donation of Mr. Gu. Thank you so much for this wonderful gift !
Above charming cardboard book „ On the farm“ was included and right away it was a big hit with the children.
We also have a big assortment of figurines to match and roleplay with and they are very popular with the children in Pre–Kindergarten class. Having made initial connections last week, starting with horses and other farm animals, this week the children deepened their knowledge by singing the old McDonald song, acquiring more vocabulary and doing a variety of related activities.
In the Japanese language, animal babies usually have the parents word combined with the word child ( ko) as in dog ( inu) and puppy (Koinu) or cow ( ushi) and calf ( koushi), but as you could already see from these examples, the English words for adult animals and baby animals are quite different and so are the ones in German.
Please feel free to watch the short clips with your child and sing along, but of course the parents real voices are always a winner.
There even is a German version now, which I include for all our parents who are interested in the language.
The Pre–Kindergarten children named some of the farm animals and matched them on a little worksheet which they coloured later.
They also used playdough to form animals and we saw some great progress in rolling snakes and making snails.
During music lesson on Tuesday, the Pre–Kindergarten children had a surprise visit from Mr.Derek who brought his guitar and rendered a life version of „ Old McDonalds“. The children listened in awe and then could have a hands– on try at strumming the guitar! What a great connection to our unit and fabulous experience. Thank you so much, Mr.Derek !
The Pre–Kindergarten children have also made astonishing progress at puzzling and constructing. In the classroom we have many puzzles ( including from the German Ravensburger Company) with a varied degree of difficulty and as they have beautiful illustrations we used them for matching, but then the children wanted to puzzle them and they finished 33 pieces! They also created amazing farms, houses and castles with the magnet shapes !
Most of our animal figurines are also from a German brand called Schleich. They are famous for being very detailed with correct proportions and look true to life. We ordered some more and the children were very happy.
There are some farmer and caretaker figurines which are perfect for role playing as the children are also learning about the food different animals eat.
Please let us know whether your family has pets and what they eat or whether your child has had some experience feeding an animal and we will gladly include it in our learning. A photo would be appreciated, too.
Some popular animals to be fed either on the farm or in the wild are ducks. They can be found on many lakes and rivers around the world and we sometimes can spot them on Rokko Island. To make a connection to our unit, the children went in search of the ducks and even waited by the river for them to appear from under the bridge, but on that day none was in sight.
There is another well known song about five little ducks wandering off from their mother, but then coming back for a happy reunion.
We have had some passionate reaction from children in the past years when the last duck disappeared and the mother was sad, so please make sure your child watches the happy ending.
Hopefully we will be able to make another excursion with the Pre–Kindergarten class in the near future to see and feed some animals.
The week ended with two activities designed by our specialist teachers.
In P.E. with Mr.Brabant the Pre–KG children made different farm animal movements: they hopped, waddled and galloped to match bean bags into the same colour hoop – and they had so much fun!
In the afternoon then they enjoyed an art lesson guided by Mr.Lubin where they explored water colours as a medium and created colourful landscapes !
Another exciting week at Pre–Kindergarten full of discoveries, playful learning and lots of meaningful connections!
Wishing you a good weekend,
With kind regards, mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Anita Ursula Mönch
DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher Playgroup / EY GFL & Deutsch German Saturday School homeroom teacher
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