A is for Animals

• Sing “Silly Old MacDonald Had a Farm” … same tune, same song, just a little sillier. My kids think this is hilarious.
  1. Sing a verse of Old MacDonald Had a Farm
  2. Sing it again, but this time, add a silly “farm” animal, like an elephant or an alligator or a hamster.

• Read “Fifteen Animals!” by Sandra Boynton … I love Sandra Boynton books. This one is pretty funny. It counts through all 15 animals and tells their names … all but one is named “Bob”.
• Read “I Know a Rhino” by Charles Fuge … another one of our favorites.

• Put animal stickers on A page
  1. Draw a large A on a piece of paper. My 5-year-old (she starts kindergarten next week) wrote her own letter A.
  2. Stick animal stickers all over the A. Talk about the animal names as you work together. I got these stickers at Michaels (it’s is a Hello Kitty booklet, but has a great variety of animals!) More animal stickers available here.

• Digging for Animals
  1. Fill a large bin with rice (or beans or sand). I like the rice because it’s easy to sweep or vacuum up.
  2. The kids will spill some, but if you don’t want rice ALL over the place, set a few ground rules.
  3. Bury several plastic animals in the rice. I have a couple different sets of TOOB animals (wild, ocean, farm). You could use anything you have around the house. Or even print, laminate and cut out pictures of animals.
  4. Let the kids dig in the rice.
  5. When they find an animal, act out that animal and make their noise!
  6. Repeat until all the animals are found!

 

• ABC Animal Puzzle … my kids love this puzzle. It is 10 feet long and the pieces are thick and sturdy.
  1. Help the kids put the puzzle together.
  2. Point out the animals and their names. Make the animal noises.
  3. When it’s complete, play a game with the puzzle. Ask your kids to “Jump to the Kangaroo!” “Crawl to the Alligator” “Hop on one foot to the Zebra”

• The Tale of Peter Rabbit App … this wasn’t exactly in the plans, but when I needed to put the baby down for a nap, I turned this on for my girls on our Kindle. It ended up fitting into our Animal Day just right.
1. It is the original tale and illustrations.
2. The kids can turn the pages.
3. A narrator reads the story.
4. The kids can tap on the pictures to animate them. I love that you can squish the blackberries
5. I got it on sale for $0.99.