The Mom I Want to Be

Goal:   To enrich the lives of pre-schoolers through a vocabulary expanding experience at the zoo or aquarium. 

 

Objectives:      

 

1.   Students will become familiar with books relating to specific animal topics.

2.   Students will learn the correct way to touch living animals.

3.   Students will be exposed to vocabulary and animal terminology not previously learned.

 

 

Pre-Activities:

 

Read It to Me: Read Who Hops? by Katie Davis to your students.  After the story, review some of the different ways that animals move.  Can you think of any other ways that animals move that weren’t in the story (climbing, swinging, etc.)?  Give each student a handful of animal cookies.  Before the students eat their cookies, have them move the way that the animal on the cookie moves.

 

Animals on Parade: Organize a “parade of animals” either in your center or in a retirement home or hospital.   Put the names of different animals on scraps of paper, put them into a bowl, and have each student pick a piece of paper.  The animal named on the scrap of paper will be the animal that the student should pretend to be in the parade.  Have your students focus on animal movements while they are pretending to be the animal.  Optional things you can do: have your students create a “costume” to wear, have a marching band in the parade (using metal pans and spoons), or have lively music to march to.

Moveable Zoo: Have each student pick out 1 animal from the story Who Hops?.  Give each student a paper cutout of the animal they have picked and have the students color their animal however they wish.  After they have finished coloring, glue the paper animal to a large popsicle stick.  Have the students make their animals slither, hop, fly, crawl, etc.

 

Post-Activities:

 

Spiders on My Back: Mother spiders can protect their young by carrying them on their backs.  Your students can be mother (and father) spiders who are trying to get their spiderlings to safety.  Set up a designated crawl area surrounded by a yarn spider web for the students to crawl to.  Divide the students into groups of 3-4.  Have the students get into the crawl position on the floor.  For each group, place a plastic spider on one student’s back.  Have that student carefully crawl to the crawl area while trying to keep the spiderling on his/her back.  After the students have reached the crawl area, they can give the spiderling to some one else in their group.  Note: group size depends on the number of plastic spiders available to you.  If there is a spider for each student, you can have the whole group perform the activity at the same time.  You can also modify this activity into a relay race.

 

Wiggly Snakes: Mix liquid glue with water (two parts glue to one part water) and separate into different bowls.  Add a little paint or food coloring to the different bowls to make the mixture different colors.  Give each student a piece of paper and 5-6 pieces of yarn (12-15 inches each).  After the students dip their ‘snakes’ into the glue mixture, they can arrange them on the paper.  Let the snake picture dry thoroughly before hanging them or sending them home.  After they are finished creating their snake picture, have the students slither around on the floor like wiggly snakes!

 

Stalking and Walking: Read the following poem out loud to your students.  Read the poem again, adding in the motions.  Feel free to come up with your own movements!

 

Animals on the Move

 

Frogs jump, caterpillars hump (Students should jump like frogs)

Worms wiggle, bugs jiggle (Students should wiggle like worms)

Rabbits hop, horses clop (Students should hop like rabbits)

Snakes slide, seagulls glide (Students should glide like seagulls)

Mice creep, deer leap (Students should creep like mice)

Puppies bounce, kittens pounce (Students should bounce like puppies)

Lions stalk,      BUT I WALK! (Students should stalk and walk)

 

Vocabulary:

 

Hop                 Fly                 

Swim               Crawl

Slither