[tminus t=”2012-10-04″ style=”carbonlite”]World Animal Day[/tminus]

 World Animal Day – Day 5

It all started with this question :

Q: Where do animals live ?

A: Mommy they live in the zoo.

I couldn’t believe my ears – I knew I had to correct that , but how do I explain? We decided to do animals and their habitats with our very own play-doh.

We picked out 7 animals and 2 insects to start with – why 7 & 2 ?? Just what she wanted 🙂

[box title=” Big S’s Pick ” color=”#b01212″]

• Bear
• Cow
• Horse
• Dolphins
• Shark
• Sea Lion
• Turtle
• Caterpillar
• Ant

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The goal here was to introduce the animals and give some insight into their habitat and their diet. Just some facts that will go well with the kids.

[heading style=”2″]We started with BEAR:[/heading]

Bears live in caves. They are just like us – they eat meat and plant food. Winnie-the-pooh bear likes honey!  They hibernate in winter and sleep for 6 months .

[heading style=”2″]COW & HORSE:[/heading]

These are a farmers pets. “Domestic Animals” . They live in a barn. They eat plants and plant food.

Big S’s own Barn Tale : The cow and horse were best buddies and wanted to have a sleep over so, the farmer made a barn . The friends ate grass and had a really fun time.

[heading style=”2″]DOLPHINS:[/heading]

They live in big oceans. They eat smaller fish.

Dolphin Story : There was once a dolphin and he was very lonely. He did not have any friends, then one day one friend came and they played and lived happily ever after.

[heading style=”2″]SHARK:[/heading]

They live in oceans and they have sharp teeth. They eat other fishes and animals. They are called “Predators”

[highlight bg=”#DDFF99″ color=”#000000″]Learning Prey and Predators[/highlight] with a story:

Once there was a shark swimming in the ocean. He was very hungry. He found a sea-lion swimming in the water. He waited and waited and then he grabbed the sea-lion and ate him.

What we learnt : The shark is the Predator and the sea-lion is the prey and sometimes animals need to eat other animals for food. That’s nature.

[heading style=”2″]SEA LION:[/heading]

They can grow into very big humongous animals. They eat fish and other sea creatures.

[heading style=”2″]TURTLE:[/heading]

They can live in sea and land. The ones that live on land are called tortoise. They eat plant food and some can live up to 100 yrs !

Learning Prey and Predators:

Story time: Some turtles who live in the seas, came to the shore to lay eggs and have babies. There were some hungry sea lions on shore looking for some food. When the turtles came to land, the sea lions ate all the turtles .

Now , the sea lions became the predators and the turtles the prey .

[heading style=”2″]CATERPILLAR:[/heading]

They are the insect form of a butterfly. They are always very hungry always and feed on leaves . They have lots of legs.

Read : The very hungry caterpillar.

[heading style=”2″]ANT:[/heading]

They bite! They live in colonies in an anthill. They are very hard workers and gather food. They have 6 legs.

[box title=”Learning de jour” color=”#b01212″]

• Different animals and habitats
• Story telling
• Words
• Concept of ecosystem
• Fine motor skills
• [highlight bg=”#DDFF99″ color=”#000000″]Most of all, Big S learnt that we share our beautiful planet with some fascinating creatures and how important it is for us to save the beauty within.[/highlight]

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This was learning and fun ,  all in one !

Thanks for reading

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Linking up with Angelique Felix at Children Loving animals