Farm Coloring Pages

• The barn: barns were traditionally painted red because farmers sealed the wood with oil mixed with rust, which was cheap and lasted for years
• Tractors and machines: a tractor, a hay baler and a combine that cuts and threshes grain in one pass
• Cows and pigs: more breeds are on the cow and pig pages
• Sheep and goats: sheep are usually shorn once a year, and goats have sideways, rectangular pupils
• Hens, roosters and ducks: a good laying hen produces an egg most days, and there are more ducks on their own page
• Horses and donkeys: the animals that pulled plows before tractors took over
• The farmer: planting, milking, driving the tractor and selling at the market stand
• Crops: corn, wheat, pumpkins and sunflowers in rows

Use the pages to trace where food comes from. Milk comes from cows and goats, wool from sheep, eggs from hens, and bread starts as wheat in a field. A rooster crows at dawn, but also at any other time of day. Sheep have rectangular pupils too, which give them a wide view of the field while they graze. A scarecrow is there to keep birds off the seeds and young plants.

Barn red is darker than fire-engine red. Mix red with a little brown, and keep the trim white. Fields look better in stripes: alternate two greens for crops and use yellow ochre for ripe wheat and hay bales. Farm animals are good practice for natural colors, like the pale pink of a pig, the cream of a sheep and the rusty brown of a hen. Crayons cover the big barn walls and sky quickly, and markers pick out the fences and tractor wheels.