Today we are making a cow craft, chick craft and pig craft all out of foam cups.  This barnyard farm craft for kids is great for kids of all ages and surprisingly simple to complete.

You can create this cute set of farm animals with the simplest of materials! This is a wonderfully fun arts and crafts activity for children, at preschoolers, kindergarten and elementary age.

3 Farm Animal Styrofoam Cup Crafts for Kids

Not only is it fun to make styrofoam cup crafts like a styrofoam cup cow, styrofoam cup chick and a styrofoam cup pig, but read to the end of this craft for some learning possibilities for preschoolers.

I am a recent convert to foam cup crafts…prepare for the obsession!

This kids craft was so popular here at Kids Activities Blog that a variation was included as one of the many classic kids crafts that are part of the massive book, The Big Book of Kids Activities with over 500 projects for kids.

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Supplies Needed

• Styrofoam cups
• Acrylic paint and paint brushes
• Chenille stems or pipe cleaners
• Tools: pencil, craft scissors, sticky tape

Directions

Step 1

Just place the styrofoam cups upside down (open end of cup down) on a sheet of newspaper or messy mat and let the kids off to do the rest.

They should start off by painting the cup with the main base colour for the animal, luckily the cow doesn’t need any overall color. If you are using acrylic paint just one coat will generally do, poster paints might need a second coat.

Step 2

Once dry the kids can first draw on the cup with a pencil if they like or just start painting on the eyes and character details before leaving aside to dry again.

Step 3

While drying the craft scissors can be put to good use cutting the pipe cleaners to the lengths needed for ears and wiggly tails etc.

Foam cups are soft and ideal for kids to push in the pipe cleaners and bend to the shapes they want, so easy, (parents cover over the pointy ends of the pipe cleaners on the inside of the cup with some masking tape or sticky tape to avoid any ouchies later).

So next time you’re at the supermarket pop a packet of foam cups into your trolley – they are the best fun for quick and simple crafting with children.

Pre-School Learning Ideas with Farm Animal Craft

The foam cup characters are the perfect friends for bringing nursery rhymes to life and to use as story starters – here’s my little miss using the cups as hand puppets for an “Oink, Oink, Moo” chat!

You can also continue the fun by using this craft activity as an interactive way to teach kids more about farm animals.

• How to recognize common farm animals
• What the mom, dad and baby names for common farm animal families are (e.g, cow, bull, herd, heifer and calf are all part of the cow family)
• What farm animals eat
• Practice farm animal sounds, always a hit!
• Learn what kinds of food and non-food products that come from chickens, cows, sheep, ducks, and pigs
• Where milk comes from and how it gets to the supermarket?! how milk is used to make lots of other yummy things we love like ice cream, cheese, butter and cream
• What about the fantastically big farm machinery!

Oh, and if you are farm-obsessed, check out this set of adorable paper tube farm animals from Crafts by Amanda!

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More Farm Crafts & Fun from Kids Activities Blog

• Download and print these cute farm animal coloring pages for kids.
• Make a homemade farm animal bowling game…it is so cute!
• Check out over 50 fun farm crafts for kids.
• Check out these fun farm activities for kids.
• I love these tractor coloring pages.
• And these pig coloring pages are adorable, this cow coloring page is a zentangle design, and don’t miss this baby chick coloring page!
• You can learn how to draw a cow, how to draw a chicken and how to draw a pig with these step by step printable tutorials for kids.

The Big Book of Kids Activities

We loved this cup craft for kids so much, we created a paper cup version of the farm animals craft for our newest book, The Big Book of Kids Activities has 500 projects that are the bestest, funnest ever! Written for kids ages 3-12 it is the compilation of bestselling kids activities books perfect for parents, grandparents and babysitters looking for new ways to entertain kids.

Yep, this fun cup craft for kids is one of over 30 classic crafts that use materials you have on hand that are featured in this book!

Oh! And grab The Big Book of Kids Activities printable play calendar for a year’s worth of playful fun.

How did your styrofoam cup crafts turn out? Do they look like the farm animals? Do you have a cute pig cup, cow cup and chicken cup?