A is for Animals {Noah’s Ark}

We actually did 1½ weeks of letter A this year. And we spent two days on A is for Animals with different books.

• Read “Noah's Ark” by Anne Wilson … this is a great book. The colors are bright and bold. The scripture story of Noah and the ark is told simply and accurately. We had fun looking at all of the different animals too! The rainbow at the end is my favorite part.
  1. Ask your preschooler to find the letter A’s on the cover.
  2. Look at the animals together and name them. Talk about the colors.

• Read “On Noah's Ark” by Jan Brett … another great option for today. I grabbed this book from the library because of the amazing animal illustrations. The story is simple and there are so many animals to look at.
  1. As you read through the pages, see if you can find each animal’s match. Noah took two animals of every kind. Count “1-2” as you find them.

• Animal Match Game … since we’re talking a lot about animal matches and “two of every kind,” this game was perfect.
  1. Print out this great Animal Matching Game from 1+1+1=1 on cardstock.
  2. OPTIONAL: Print A’s on the back of the pages so you can’t see through Here is a PDF of the page I used:
  3. Laminate and cut out the cards. I use this laminator and love it!
  4. Look at the cards together, so your preschooler can recognize the mom & baby matches.
  5. Lay the cards out on the floor, upside-down.
  6. Take turns turning over two cards at a time. If you found a match, keep it. If not, turn them back over and it’s the other person’s turn.

• Animal Grow Capsules … my 3-year-old was SO excited to do these. Find them at the dollar store or Michaels. If you’re doing this activity with up to 12 kids, I’d recommend getting your grow capsules (a 12-pack) on Amazon, here. 
  1. Fill a bowl with warm water.
  2. Place a few capsules (or, if you’re my daughter, all of them) into the water.
  3. Push them around, dunk them and watch.
  4. Once the animals come out of the capsules, squeeze out the water and match them to the silhouette on the back of the package.

• Color Noah’s Ark … I’ve seen this idea in a few different places, so I’m not sure where the original idea came from. This takes a little prep, but I love it!
  1. Cut out a simple boat shape from two paper plates (see photo above). I just penciled it, then used an exacto knife on a cutting board to easily cut it out.
  2. I draw the bottom of the ark and the circle windows. The rest is up to my preschooler
  3. Show them how to draw a rainbow on the “handle”.
  4. Color the water. We added fish this time.
  5. Color the ark.
  6. Staple both paper plates together, all the way around, forming a little pouch.

• Animal Crackers, Two by Two.
  1. Spread several animal crackers or cookies out on the table.
     • NOTE: I found these at our local grocery store. 
  2. Have the kids look and find several animal matches.
  3. When they find a match, have them “load” the animals into their ark.
  4. Eat them for a snack