Overview
These activities will introduce your child to animals and their babies and farm animals. They will also help your child develop important skills like:
- fine motor skills (coloring, cutting, gluing)
- identifying shapes and colors
- counting
- comparing how things are alike and how they are different
- describe different types of animals and their offspring
- building vocabulary (notice the difference between what an animal baby is called as compared to the adult animal)
Supplies Needed
- Construction paper
- Crayons
- Scissors
- Glue sticks
- Pig Shapes Graph PDF
- Are You My Mother Animal Matching Game PDF
Pig Shapes Graph Instructions
- Have your child color the shapes inside the pig using the color guide at the top of the page.
- Count how many of each shape there are inside the pig.
- Color in the number of squares on the graph that equal the number of each shape (for example, there are three (3) stars, so your child will color in three boxes next to the star shape on the graph).
- Compare the data in the graph. Which shape is shown the most? Which is the least?
Are You My Mother Animal Matching Game Instructions
- Glue the first sheet (animal babies) to the construction paper.
- Have your child cut out the animals on the second sheet (adult animals).
- Match the adult with its animal baby.
Extend the learning:
Talk about how animal babies look like their parents. How do they look different? Look up different animals and see if you can find ones that grow up to look completely different from when they are babies (for example, tadpoles and frogs).
What kinds of animals would you find on a farm? What kinds would you find in a rainforest? What kinds in a desert? Find pictures of each and talk about how they are the same or different.
Take a trip to a local farm. What kind of farm is it (dairy, crops, both?). Write a story about your visit to the farm.
Books about farms and animals:
Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
Farming by Gail Gibbons
Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Color Farm by Lois Ehlert
A Year on the Farm by Holly Dufek
Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman