A is for Animals

    

• Silly Old McDonald … sing a silly version of a familiar song.
  1. Look through a variety of animal books to introduce the Animal theme for the day.
  2. Sing “Old McDonald Had a Farm” using any animal, not just farm animals. Use your imagination:

     Old McDonald had a farm E I E I O And on his farm he had an ELEPHANT! …or a polar bear. Or a monkey…

• Read “A Number of Animals” by Christopher Wormell

  Counting Fun: This is a cute, simple counting book with bold pictures about one little chick who is looking for his mother among all of the other animals. We enjoyed following the chick through the pictures and counting the animals along the way.

  1. Have the kids point out letter A on the cover.
  2. Count the letter As.

• Animal Number Match
  1. The last two pages of the book were inspiration for this simple activity.
  2. Print out numbers 1-10 and cut apart.
  3. Use clipart to make the same number of animals in the book. Print them out in groups:
     • 1 chick
     • 2 horses
     • 3 cows
     • 4 turkeys
     • 5 goats
     • 6 geese
     • 7 sheep
     • 8 ducks
     • 9 pigs
     • 10 chicks
  4. As you read through the story again, have the kids find the number and matching group of animals to go with each page. Great counting and number recognition!

 

• Animal Alphabet Train Puzzle … available here
  1. With two preschoolers, we usually just spread this out on the floor and take turns finding the next letter puzzle piece.
  2. This is a LONG puzzle, so afterwards have them do a little movement activity.
  3. I ask them to hop to letter H, or walk to letter W, or tiptoe to the elephant, or jump to the letter their name starts with.

• Animal Clothespin Game … original how-to post here.
  1. Draw and cut out animal bodies (without the legs) of each of the animals in the book:

     chick      horse     cow      turkey     goat goose     sheep     duck     pig

  2. Paint 2 clothespins to match each body (ex: 2 brown clothespins as legs for the brown horse body.)
     • NOTE: We will paint these first before the other activities so they will dry. Or just use crayons to color them.
  3. Let the kids snap the matching clothespin legs on the bodies & stand them up. Lots of fun!

• Pretend to be an animal
  1. Put several toy animals (the plastic ones above are perfect or small stuffed animals or whatever you have!) into a bag. You could also just use pictures of animals.
  2. Have the kids pull out one of the animals.
  3. Let them tell you anything they know about that animal. Teach them a few fun facts if you want.
  4. Have the kids pretend to be that animal. They love it when you act it out as well.

   

• Baby Animals Printable Pack … this FREE printable pack from 1+1+1=1 is simply amazing. Thank you so much for offering it for free. I know my kids are going to enjoy it. Click here to download this pack! What I loved:
  1. Number puzzles
  2. Tracing practice pages
  3. Simple graphing game (with animal dice included) … both my 3 and 4-year-old loved this game.
  4. Easy reader printable
  5. Coloring page with questions game

     

• Baby Animals Match … 1+1+1=1 also has a FREE set of matching cards. What a great resource and all with real photos of animals. I love it. Download here.
• Snack: Animal Crackers
  1. Count them.
  2. Sort them.
  3. Eat them