A is for Alligators and Animals

• Book: There’s an Alligator Under my Bed by Mercer Mayer

• Animal Print Alphabet
1. I found these stickers at the dollar store and printed a traceable alphabet page.
2. After tracing the alphabet, match the animal print ABC stickers to the letters on the paper.
3. Cut them out, then glue them in order.
   ***Lots of repetitive alphabet exposure!

• Animal stamps
1. Play with animal stamps (we have THESE).
2. Write numbers on the top of a piece of paper (or use magnent numbers like we did) and have your preschooler stamp and count that many animals underneath.
3. Start a pattern with animal stamps, have them continue it.

• Sing ‘5 Little Monkeys’ – see THIS post!

A is for Animals

• Sing SILLY “Old Macdonald Had a Farm” … a silly spin on the traditional song.
  1. Sing a few verses of the regular “Old Macdonald” song.
  2. Open “My Little Animal Book” and let the kids choose any animal for Old Macdonald’s farm. Repeat several times. My kids thought this was hilarious Book available here.
     • You might growl for a lion
     • Make fins for a fish
     • Hop for a kangaroo
     • Chomp for an alligator

• Read “Fifteen Animals!” by Sandra Boynton … this is a fun, quick and catchy animal book. Available here.

• Read “Animal Opposites” by Petr Horacek … I LOVE this new book. It is creative and simple and colorful. Most of the pages have a fold-out or pop-up and every page illustrates an opposite. Available here.
  1. Point out the letters on the cover. Name the letters.
  2. If you’re working on colors, ask the kids to name or point to certain colors.
  3. Can the kids name the animals on the cover?
  4. ACT OUT the opposite pages as you read! My kids were giggling and having so much fun with this. It’s especially fun when Mom gets up to do it with them
     • S-L-O-W snail … FAST cheetah
     • STILL sloth … bOuNcY kangaroo
     • quiet rabbit … LOUD LION!

• Do ‘A’ journal page … we use a primary composition book.
  1. Write ‘Aa’ on a new page. Practice a few more AAA’s and aaa’s.
  2. I show my 4-year-old the word “ANIMAL” on the cover of one of our books and she copies the letters onto her journal page.
  3. Add animal stickers (or draw pictures).

• Animal Hunt & Write … this was probably my 4-year-old’s favorite activity. We played it four times, taking turns hiding and finding.
  1. I used the “baby animal match” game available for FREE from 1+1+1=1. Just download and print here.
  2. Leave the adult animal attached to the animal name.
  3. Cut apart the animal babies and have your preschooler glue them to a piece of paper. Clip the paper onto a clipboard.
  4. Hide the adult animal & animal names together around the house. We hid the animals all over our backyard!
  5. Have your preschooler find each animal and copy the animal name next to the matching animal on their paper.
  6. The thrill of the hunt and the fun of copying the letters made this a very fun activity … over and over

• Animal photo matching game … this was a great game matching our toy animals to real-life photos.
• Use “My Big Animal Book” and “My Little Animal Book”. Available here and here. These books contain wonderful real-life animal photos.
• TIP: You could also print out several real-life photos or save them from magazines.
• Match several TOOB-type animals to the real-life photos in the book.

  Wild Animals

  Ocean Animals

  Pets

  Farm Animals

• Play with animals in model magic
1. We used green and brown model magic. I got ours at Michaels. Available here in a variety of colors.
2. Make prints with the animals.
3. Pretend the animals are climbing green model magic trees or sleeping in brown model magic caves.
4. Or squish as many animals as you can into one big lump.
5. We ended up getting the googly eyes out and making snakes and monsters with 100 eyeballs

• Animal Graphing Game
1. Print the “Baby Animal Graphing” game and dice from the Baby Animals Printable Pack from 1+1+1=1.
2. Cut out the dice, fold and glue together.
3. Roll the animal dice and mark the graph.
4. My 4-year-old wants to write her numbers, so she practiced those. You could also mark with an ‘X’ or color in the box.

• Animals Cracker Snack
1. Open a box of animal crackers.
2. Name the animals, make the animal sounds or act them out.
3. Sort the animals into piles.
4. Enjoy an animal cracker snack!

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