Activities

Animal Fun Facts

Share information about your favorite animal.

Materials

• Collection of animal pictures or toy animals
• Informational books about your child's animal of choice
• Poster board
• Construction paper
• Markers
• Scissors
• Tape

Directions
1. Help your child gather a collection of animal pictures or toy animals. Have fun sorting them in various ways, for example:

• animals with 2 legs, 4 legs, 6 legs, 8 legs, 0 legs
• animals who live in the sky, in the water, on or under the ground.
• farm animals, pets, wild zoo animals, wild backyard animals (insects, worms, squirrels, et cetera)
• animals whose names have 1 syllable, 2 syllables, 3 syllables

Have your child pick up two pictures or toy animals at random. Ask, "Can you think of a way these two animals are alike? Can you think of a way these two animals are different?"

2. Have your child choose one animal he or she would like to know more about. Together, research that animal. Seek out animal encyclopedias and nonfiction books in the library. Do some research on the Web.

Help your child make an informational poster with pictures of the animal and some interesting facts. One idea is to make Q & A flaps, so the poster becomes a Fun Fact quiz that family members and visitors can take. Write a question on a small piece of paper (Q: "What do elephants eat?"). Tape the top edge of the question paper to the poster, so it becomes a flap you can lift. Write the answer to the question in the space covered by the flap. (A: "Elephants eat leaves, bark, grass, and fruit-200 to 400 pounds every day!")

Talk About It
Play an Animal Guessing Game with your child. Have your child think of an animal. Ask "yes or no" questions to narrow down the field until you can guess the animal. Then, switch roles and have your child ask you questions in order to guess your secret animal.

"Is your animal a pet?"

"Is your animal bigger than this book?"

"Does your animal have four legs?"

"Can your animal fly?"

Related Books
Biggest, Strongest, Fastest by Steve Jenkins
The Little Animal Encyclopedia by John Farndon and Jon Kirkwood
My World: Weird and Wonderful Wildlife by Angela Wilkes

Next: Be A Poet
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Age Range: 4-6

Skills/Subjects:

• Creative Expression
• Language and Literacy Development
• Problem Solving
• Science

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