Make some of your very own handmade wood folk farm animals for your play farm set. This is a project that even my youngest kiddo was able to participate in and enjoy.
For this week’s Unplugged Challenge theme hard we made primitive folk art style Barnyard Animal Toys. When we first found out the theme last week, I asked the kids what was ‘hard’ and all of their answers all stemmed around wood. Wood blocks, wood toys, tree branches, etc. I spent several days trying to come up with an idea. Then I remembered a post my SIL had on her blog last week linking to directions on making wood toys. It seemed like a bit of a stretch to have the kids do it but they thought it was a great idea and were in on it every step of the way.
Handmade Wood Folk Farm Animals Materials
- 1 inch thick pine wood
- animal patterns (you can hand drawn your own or use ours Pig/Horse/Cow & Sheep/Goat)
- coping saw
- sandpaper or dremel
- safety goggles
- non-toxic paint
- optional: homemade beeswax wood finish
Handmade Wood Folk Farm Animals Directions
First I drew up some farm animal outlines based on some toys I saw online.
I printed the handmade wood folk farm animals shapes and cut them out. I had each child pick their favorite and then we traced the animals onto a scrap piece of 1″ thick pine.
Using a coping saw, we cut out the basic shapes. Bug really likes to use a saw (he was lots of help to Daddy when fixing some rotten boards on the deck this spring) and enjoyed getting a chance to cut out his animal. The Fairy girl gave it a try too. In the end Daddy did do most of the cutting as the kids decided it was too hard (does that count as a second theme tie in?).
The step that they thought was the most fun was getting to use the Dremel to smooth the edges. Adorned with safety goggles and mommy’s steady hand they sanded their own animals. You could just use normal sand paper if you would prefer. I finished cleaning them up.
Once they were all smooth we used a light coat of Non-toxic children’s watercolor paints to give a color wash. I used the water colors because it is light enough to still see the grain (which is cool) and most importantly, it is what I had on hand. I still need to get a clear coat sealer or make some homemade beeswax wood finish to apply over the color, but they are done enough for the kids to start playing with them.
All in all, I would guess this was about a 2 hour project. The kids are very proud of the toys that they made and are really enjoying them because of the process.
