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Harvest theme for 3 and 4 year olds: a week of activities

A harvest theme lesson plan for 3 and 4 year olds: what a day looks like, then the week's circle time (ten to fifteen minutes, with a child holding the book), books, craft, song, snack, letter and outside time, each with what changes at this age.

Plan this week for 3 and 4 year oldsThe whole harvest week

A day of the harvest theme with 3 and 4 year olds

  1. Arrival, sign-in, and a job from the helper chart.
  2. Circle (ten to fifteen minutes): calendar, “What do farmers pick in the fall?”, sing “mary, mary, quite contrary”, then At the Farm.
  3. Centers, with the craft at one table: paper-plate scarecrow.
  4. Letter S: trace it once, then hunt for S around the room.
  5. Snack: Ants on a Log, with children pouring and counting.
  6. Outside: scarecrow freeze.
  7. Rest, then a longer read-aloud: Henny Penny.

Harvest circle time

  1. Good morning song, then say each name together.
  2. Calendar: the day, the date and the weather.
  3. Ask: “What do farmers pick in the fall?”
  4. Sing: Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary.
  5. Read: At the Farm (level 3).

Threes and fours: ten to fifteen minutes; let a child hold the book.

Harvest theme books

  • At the Farm (level 3, free on peabody.kids): The farm in a pattern book, for the harvest talk.
  • Meg and the Seed (level 3, free on peabody.kids): From a seed to something to pick.
  • The Big Truck (level 2, free on peabody.kids): A truck in the mud, like a harvest truck.
  • Henny Penny (read aloud, level 5): A read-aloud: an acorn falls and a hen thinks the sky is falling.

Harvest craft: Paper-plate scarecrow

You need (5): paper plate, crayons, yellow paper strips (straw), a paper triangle hat, glue stick.

  1. Draw a happy face on the plate.
  2. Glue straw strips around the edge.
  3. Glue the hat on top.

With a grown-up. No heat, nothing hot.

Harvest song: Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

The words

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow? With silver bells and cockle shells, And pretty maids all in a row.

Traditional; public domain. From Top 52 nursery rhymes with lyrics.

Harvest snack

Ants on a Log from the Peabody Kitchen: picture steps, allergy swaps and safety lines on the recipe.

Swap: Peanut butter → sunflower seed butter.

Letter S activities

SsS is for scarecrow. Print the two pages (a trace page and a color page).

Threes and fours: trace S and s once, then find S in the room and in the book.

Outside activity: Scarecrow freeze

Children flap like birds; when the grown-up calls "Scarecrow!" everyone freezes with arms out.

Harvest theme for toddlersHarvest theme for 2 year oldsHarvest theme, all ages

Checked 2026-10-30