It's a Big Red Barn-Raising!

This art project was inspired by Big Red Barn. To learn more about the book and see all our Big Red Barn activities, click here.

Hello folks, and welcome to the Big Red Barn Raising! Gather the little ones and get ready for a few days of hard work, creativity, and good food as we travel to the farm.

Wouldn't you love to live on the farm in Big Red Barn, spending the days with the animals? Don’t let that farm fun end with the last page of the book - with this week's craft your reader can make a farm of their own for hours of play.

With a few basic supplies they will have crops growing, animals grazing and will be able to practically smell the sweet scent of hay wafting through the air.

 

Supplies

For the Barn

• 1 brown paper grocery bag
• Newspaper for stuffing the barn
• Stapler
• Paint for the barn – we used red and black
• Paintbrush
• Glue
• Crayons or markers
• Scissors
• Brown construction paper, scraps of butcher paper, or pieces cut from another brown paper bag, even white paper will work. These will be cut to make windows and doors. 

For the Farm Play Mat

• Large sheet of butcher paper or another brown paper grocery bag
• Coloring implements

1. Crumple sheets of newspaper and stuff the grocery bag about 2/3 full (a tightly packed bag will be easier to paint). 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Fold the top of the bag over and staple to form the peaked roof of the barn.
   
   
3. Paint the bottom part of the barn red and the roof another color. Allow paint to dry.
   
   
   
    
    
   
   
   
   
   The animals were quite confused. They simply could not understand what all the hubbub was about!
   
   
4. Use the desired material (see note in Supplies list) to make windows and doors for the barn.
   
   
   
   You can cut large, oblong rectangles and then fold them in half like a book to make a window with shutter.
   We colored the outside of the windows with red and added a black X.  You can also draw animals looking out the windows.
   
   
   The Goat, looking out the window.
   
   
   The pink pig, who looks quite a bit like Olivia, don't you think? Hmmm... I'm not sure Olivia would like living in a barn. 
    
5. Glue windows and doors onto the barn.
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Lay the sheet of butcher paper out flat or cut another grocery bag open so it will lay flat to form a play mat.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Using markers, crayons, stickers scraps of paper or whatever else fuels the imagination, encourage your young reader to draw a farm play-scape to accompany the barn. Add toy animals and let the fun begin!