Wild, Wild, West Theme Page 2
In The KitchenBaked Bean Bread
It works well to use those Campbell soup cans. After you are done baking the bread in them it looks nice to tie a bandana material around the center of the can. Kids really like this even though you might think they wouldn't! Baked Bean Bread = 2 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 1 cup oil, 3 eggs, 1t. vanilla, 1t.cinnamon, 1 can pork & beans (16 oz.) drained, 1/2 t. baking powder, 1/2 t. soda, 1 cup raisins optional. Mix sugar, oil, beans. Mix flour, dry ingredients, put together with vanilla. Fill 5 greased (sprayed with pam) 16 oz cans 2/3 full with batter. Bake 45-50 minutes at 325 degrees.
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Cow Chip Cookies - Makes 4 dozen
2 cups sugar
5 Tbl. unsweetened cocoa
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. butter(1 stick)
1/2 c chunky peanut butter
1 tsp.vanilla extract
3 cups quick-cooking oatsCover baking sheet with wax paper & set aside. Combine sugar & cocoa in a large saucepan. Stir in milk, butter, & peanut butter. Cook & stir over medium heat until butter melts & mixture is combined, about 5 to 10 minutes. Turn the heat off, stir in vanilla, oats, & nuts, & mix thoroughly. Take a teaspoon & scoop out a spoonful of the mixture: drop the spoonful onto the waxed paper-covered baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the mixture. Place in the refrigerator until the cookies are cooled & set.
Coyote Caution: Be sure to remove the mixture of milk, butter & peanut butter from the heat before you add the oats & nuts; this will prevent the mixture from burning & will allow the mixture to start cooling so you can safely spoon it out.
Texas Fact: Speaking of cows, Texas is the home of the longhorn cattle, so named because of the enormous length of their horns - sometimes they measure more than 12 feet from tip to tip!
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Make trail mix in class.....the kids decorate their "saddle bags"....brown lunch bags....then went to the table to pick and choose what they would like to put into their trail mix...put out treats like:
mini pretzels
mini marshmallows
raisins
little toasted breads
choc chips
chex cerealTake bags outside for a cowboy picnic!!
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Theme Ideas
Live Stock Show Each child got to bring in their favorite stuffed animal and show it off to the class...then everyone won ribbons!!!
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Wild, Wild West Theme Ideas
Dress western...decorate cowboy boots...go to a petting zoo and a horse ranch...go on a hayride...decorate stars with tin foil and hang them on the ceiling... Bring in sleeping bags and sleep under the stars...dance to country music and videotape it (hysterical!!).....make bluebonnets using fingerpaint......and make a tactile shape of texas using texas pasta!!
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Cowboy Talk
The kids shout cowboy lingo while whooping at imaginary "little dogies". Yup, howdy ma'am, y'all, pardner, and grub were words to become quite familiar with.
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Counting Chickies
Count chickies made from yellow cotton balls and tell tales around our circle-time campfire. All of the kids work on coordination and large motor development practice as we square dance and participate in the rodeo events.
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Music
Sounds of "Turkey in the Straw," "Home on the Range," and "Polly Wolly Doodle" ring through the hills surrounding our home, as the young voices chimed.
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Cowboy Hats
Cowboy hats for all....Oriental Trading has them inexpensively. As well as lots of other decorations and do-dads you might like. Here is their link. http://www.oriental.com/main
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
More Wild, Wild West Ideas
* Drink root beer in bottles.
* Play horse shoes.
* Play pin the tail on the horsey.
* Play rope the cow.....putting horns on a bale of hay..and giving them a lasso.
* Play shoot the target.....give them a dart gun and let them shoot at a target of your choice.
* Play throw the bean bag into the bucket...calling it cow turd tossing contest....making bean bags out of brown felt...and tossing them into a wash basin....or something else..through a tire...whatever...an old boot would be good...but might be hard to hit.
* Have them run relay races with a homemade brand....and run dip into white powder...run...brand a stuffed animal...then run back and give to their other team mates...having the kids divided into two groups.
* How about roping the bull....sort of get a bale of hay and make horns have them toss rings on "to lasso".
* Wear cowboy/girl hats.
* Square dancing.
* How about a cookout on the range.....make a pretend fire, set out bales of hay, make s'mores, oh they always have neat cake ideas.
* For my dd she had a pool theme and I took a sand pail and made the cake in there and served it with a shovel maybe you could come up with something like that.
* How about: Tape the Tail to The Horse. (5 yr. old version of Pin the Tail to The Donkey).
* Play Duck-Duck Goose using a Cowboy Hat. Have the child who is going around the outside of the circle carry a hat, when he chooses a goose he places it on the child's head. Variation: Call it Horse, Horse, Donkey! :-)
* A Treasure Hunt: Looking for the Lost Gold/ Have the Gold-Minors seek and find.
* Party Favors: Maybe a cowboy hat for each child. Perhaps candy wrapped in a bandana.
* Also using binder twine and twisting a couple strips together and tying that into knots all around is good practice, making bracelets or whatever they desire.
* Make horse shoes out of plastic or cardboard and toss them.~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Cowboy Hat Matching
I made different cowboy hats adding different patterns to the hatbands. The kids matched the two that look alike and they also started playing concentration with them.
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
A Campfire
I made a block circle with red and orange tissue paper inside. Then I added a cooling rack (that I found at a garage sale for 10cents) on top. The kids had fun cooking outside like real cowboys!
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Field Trip
Field trip to a farm and discuss branding of cows and horses. (We didn't see it actucally done....I think it would have shaken up a few kids). When we came back to school we each made our own brand out of the letters in our name.
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
California Gold Rush
Materials needed
Gold spray painted rocks
Sand
Sand table or large tub
Aluminum pie pans
Chinese food take-out boxes or containers
Paper towelsWhat to do
1. In advance, use gold spray paint on rocks and mix the rocks with sand in a sand table or large tub. Add water to the table or tub so that the sand and rocks are submerged.
2. At circle time talk with the children about the Gold Rush and explain how people panned for gold.
3. Show the children the technique of panning for gold (scoop some sand and water into a pie pan and swirl the water around and out of the pan to reveal the gold nuggets.)
4. During choice time ask two children to pan for gold at a time. After finding the nuggets ask the children to store the nuggets in their containers.~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Wild West
let the kids make trail mix.....decorate paper cowboy boots....have a hay hunt (treasure)......barrel racing (set up chairs for the kids to run races around)....play some country music and have a hoedown!!......have a stock show (let the kids bring in stuffed animals then give ribbons for different categories).....galloping races.....make tin foil stars...and bring in sleeping bags then sleep under the stars like the cowboys.....make chili......make chocolate cows (shakes).....yodel....................and thats all I can grab off the top of my head!!!
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Wild West Ideas
Go to KEYWORD & type in RODEO. It will take you to a site w/lots of cowboy/girl stuff. It has poetry & lots of other items that I think will help you.
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Bandanna Uses Game
Ask a child to get in the middle of the circle with a bandanna. The child has to come up with a useful way that a cowboy/cowgirl might use the bandanna. The children get creative. Here's a few: flag, diaper, bathing suit, belt, hat, swat flys, sling for broken arm, napkin, bib, apron, bandage.
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Cattle Brands
Cattle brands identify owners. I then show all kinds of cattle brands. I then let the children design a cattle brand .
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Stickhorse Races
Borrow 2 stickhorses & have races. Line the children up at opposite ends of the playground & hold up a red bandanna. When it is waved the race starts. We do two children at a time.
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Do barrel racing in class....we set up 3 chairs in a triangle in the center of the room...then showed the kids how to run around them....we had them gallop too!
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
We also did two activities that went over really well. We tried to rope a cow, made from poster board, with a hula hoop. The second was we milked the cow. We attached a latex glove (filled with skim milk) to the poster board cow. We put a tiny pin prick in each finger, put a stool and a bucket next to it and each child took a turn "milking" the cow. ~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Learning to gallop, wear bandanas, make vests and chaps out of brown papersacks, make a paper mache cow for a pinata.
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
You can also do a "grand entry" where you all parade around in a pattern (follow the leader) while the leader carries the flag - riding your stick horses of course.
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Don't forget rodeo clowns! You could also tape the Mesquite Rodeo from TNN and show the kids what a real rodeo looks like!
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Flax seed is what they feed to horses. You can buy a big bag for around $10 at a feed store. It's great for the sensory table! Very sensual and has a great smell.
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Corn Transfer - for fine motor
Provide the children with tweezers, one bowl of corn kernels and one empty bowl. Ask the children to transfer the corn from one bowl to another with the tweezers.
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Wild West Ideas
-We danced with bandanas to country music.
-We decorated cowboy hats and bonnets using pom poms and sequence.
-We painted sheriff badges with condense milk and yellow food coloring.
-We put sand in the water table and played with plastic cowboys and Indians. (snip off the guns)
-We painted cactus
-We started group time with country songs like she'll be coming around the mountain when she comes ect.
-We sponged painted cowboy-cowgirl boots with a mixture of paint and sand. If you have no sand you can use salt.~Submitted by Mary Jo
Links! Preschool Wild West Rodeo Theme - Childcare Lounge
Preschool Western Theme - Everything Preschool
Rodeo/Western Day - Hummingbird
Rodeo Time - K-Crew
Arts & Crafts: Western - Preschool Education
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