Sing this to the tune "I'm A Little Teapot"
Saddle Bags- Get enough brown paper bags for every one and have the children scrunch them up. Write the child's name on the bag. Place all ingredients on the table in bowls; coconut, peanuts, raisins, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds, dried fruit, etc. Have each child choose their own ingredients for their trail mix. Place it in their saddle bags, shake to mix up the mix.
Cut out cactus shapes, then give each child some toothpicks to break into pieces. Then glue them onto the cactus.
Use triangular pieces of cloth (a used clean sheet) and let the children decorate them with markers and paint. Use potato stamps that look like branding iron shapes and have the children print on their neck scarves.
Make a large cow head on poster board and laminate. Tape it to a short chair. Have the children try to throw a hula hoop over the cows head to "lasso" him.
Wanted Posters- For each child, get one sheet of beige paper. At home, burn the edges and maybe a circle out of the corner. Print "WANTED" at the top, a photo of the child in the center and the child's name at the bottom. Children can add stickers or twine, etc.
Talk to someone who owns horses and see if you can get some old horseshoes. Have the children paint the horseshoes and make prints on heavy duty construction paper.
Go to your local feed store and buy horse pellets. Fill your sensory table with the horse food.
Buy some hay and put in the sensory table. Add plastic horses and watch the creative play begin.
Sheriff Stars- Cut out stars and have the children cover them in foil. Decorate with permanent markers, tape a safety pin to the back.
Camping under the stars- Make stars and hang from the ceiling, bring out sleeping bags and camp out.
Covered Wagons- Take 1/2 sheet of paper, 1 whole sheet and 2 circles from black construction paper. The children decorate the whole sheet with brands. Fold over the whole sheet to the half sheet and staple or glue. Attach the circles to the bottom.
Horseshoe Throwing- Make horseshoes out of cardboard and throw around a stick.
Paper Plate Puppet- Make a face on the paper plate, top with a cowboy hat and a bandana around the neck or over the mouth.
Cut out western boots and have the children decorate them. Then fasten them together and display.
Spray paint rocks gold and put in the sand table. Have aluminum pie pans and small containers. Punch holes in the pans and let them sift for gold.
Make gold rush wall hangings from paper plates. Paint the plates yellow and sprinkle with gold glitter. When dry, glue a gold nugget in the center of the plate. Label the plate with current date and the name of the gold rush prospector.
Horse feed bags- Take lunch bags and cut them in half. Attach strings to each side. Fill them with pretzels and have the children try to eat their hay without using their hands, by attaching the bag to their ears.
Make spurs using a sentence strip cut into thirds lenghtwise. Cut the strip to fit around the ankle of each child. Staple the ends of the strip and staple a star on where the strip is joined together.
Make chaps out of butcher paper. Cut the length of the child and cut to look like the front of pants. Add yarn for the tassels and to tie around the leg. Let the children decorate.