Dramatic play is my absolute favorite! There are so many skills wrapped up in play that the children don’t even realize they are learning while they gallop around the room, neighing like a horse and saying, “Wee-haw!” Take a look at the “mane” event of the week: Wild West dramatic play at the Cowboy Ranch.
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Wild West Lesson Plans
Cowboy Ranch Dramatic Play
Ideas for Dramatic Play Center
It’s all in the backdrop. The photo backdrop transports your little ones to the rugged Wild West, and before long, they’ll be talking in a country accent and eating out of a tin can.
Some other cowboy touches you can add to your cowboy ranch dramatic play center are hay bales, a chair with the bull printout to lasso, a firepit area, a fenced-in area to herd the cattle, and a target practice area.
Plus, what’s a cowboy without a hat? Have your students design their own hats using the outline provided in Cowboy Ranch Dramatic Play. Tip: Laminate the hats (not the straps) to make them last and not become flops. You could also buy some hats to incorporate into the dress-up area.
Materials:
cowboy chores
Sustained Dramatic Ply
Cowboys work extremely hard, as we have discovered by reading many cowboy books throughout the week.
This visual list of chores helps little ones determine what they must do daily on the cowboy ranch and leads to extended dramatic play, just what we want.
My favorite part: teaching them how to use a country accent with some cowboy phrases. My stomach hurt from laughing so much! “Git ‘er done!”
Materials:
- Cowboy Ranch Dramatic Play
- wooden troughs or cardboard boxes
Herd the cattle
Wild West Dramatic Play
The second our stick horse was complete, the kids (okay, and I) have been galloping non-stop around the entire house! Just use the included horse head printout and a big ol’ stick.
For one of our cowboy chores, we rounded up all the cattle (first, we scattered them around the room) and brought them back to the pasture to feed.
Then, we counted them to see how many cattle we collected to record in our cowboy journal. We used the fence printouts and the foldable fence to create our pasture.
Another must for your cowboy ranch dramatic play is the chair bull lasso! Your little ranchers will be tossing that rope over and over again to try and get it around the bull’s head. Um, can I say gross motor skills?
Materials:
- Cowboy Ranch
- foldable fence
- chair
- rope
- stick ponies
cowboy journal
Cowboy Ranch Dramatic Play
Cowboys used to record their thoughts, dreams, and stories in journals. They also recorded information about their cattle in their journals.
We spent time each day recording the weather by circling one of the choices, circling how many cattle we herded that day, and drawing a picture of something that happened. No heartache here.
Materials:
target practice
Gross Motor Skills
I don’t know about you, but I am obsessed with games, especially cornhole. And this target practice game was just screaming cornhole.
Toss a small beanbag onto the target on the floor and add tally marks on top of the dotted ones when you score. First to 10 wins!
This target practice was the perfect way to incorporate working on tally marks and gross motor skills while playing a fun game at the cowboy ranch.
Materials:
making a fire
Following Instructions
If you’re married to my husband, having a fire is a regular occurrence (2-3 times a week). But many kids only experience fires once or twice a year.
Either way, my kids spent over an hour setting up the fire and pretending to cook dinner for me.
We followed the directions on the instructions sheet by first building a circle of rocks, adding a teepee of logs, and finally lighting the fire with a match.
I used the PVC pipes that we usually bring out with our sensory bin to make the stand for the pot (I just wrapped them in a wrapping paper tube to make them brown). Finally, we added some logs to use as seats and got the perfect campfire setup.
You could even incorporate sleeping bags or tents so that the cowboys and girls can pretend to sleep under the stars.
Materials:
- Cowboy Ranch Dramatic Play
- rocks
- small logs
- PVC pipes
- cardboard tubes
Cowboy Vocabulary
Learning Through Play
I am always astounded at how much vocabulary is acquired when learning about a certain topic. That is one of the reasons I love learning with themes.
This week, the Cowgirl Gear and Cowboy Gear signs were placed by the dress-up station so my kiddos could practice using their new vocabulary as they dressed.
After a long week of herding cattle, we discussed what we had learned about cowboys using these knowledge charts. It was amazing to see everything they had learned.
Materials:
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MORE Wild West Activities for Preschoolers
Wild West play at the cowboy ranch is a blast for preschoolers! It’s not just fun; it’s a chance for kids to ride into imaginative adventures and pick up valuable skills along the way. From teamwork to creativity, they’re learning while having a blast in the Wild West world. So, let’s keep the cowboy spirit alive—it’s more than just play; it’s a journey of discovery and excitement for our little ones!
