What do you call a group of owls? While this may seem like the start of a joke, it’s not! (The answer is a Parliament). I have always been interested in finding out what different animal families are called. So when we had the opportunity to check out today’s book, I was thrilled to learn a variety of animal group names that I had never heard before. This inspired me to create some fun animal family activities with my daughter as well.
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Sorting Animal Families
Sorting Animals – This book is all about animal families, so it offers the perfect opportunity to help kids practice their sorting skills! For very young kids, this could be as simple as sorting the same animals into different groups. My daughter currently loves playing pet vet. She has a group of dog and cat stuffed animals that she frequently “checks out” at her clinic. After reading this book together, I talked to her about the difference between her stuffed animals, and had her sort them into two groups.
Once she had an understanding of the activity, I started adding more animals. She had a lot of fun checking out each animal and deciding which group it should go into. For older kids, you can take it a step further and have them match the different animals to the right family names. You can easily set this up with small animal toys or printed photos of animals.
Get kids moving!
Gross Motor Animal Family Games – There are lots of ways that you can utilize the information in this book while getting kids running around and having fun. First, write out animal family names on large pieces of paper and place these around a room or yard.
- Animal Sort – As you call out an animal name, have kids run to the correct animal family area. This gives them a chance to practice identifying the animal family names, plus it’s just lots of fun to run around the yard!
- Act it Out – You could also make it more difficult by having them run/walk/fly like that animal as they make their way to the marker.
- Divide it Up – If you have a larger group of kids, you could also change it up by calling out clues and sending kids to all different family groups. (If you are wearing blue, you are a turtle, etc).
- 4 Corners – Change up this classic game by utilizing animal family names instead of numbers for the corners. Have one person in the center of the yard or room close their eyes while everyone else runs to a corner. Without opening their eyes, the person in the center calls out an animal name. Everyone standing in that animal family corner is then out for that round. Everyone else continues to run to another corner and the person in the center calls out another animal, until there is only 1 runner left standing. That person then becomes “it” and stands in the center for the next round.
Celebrating Your Family
Family Craft – The best part of this book is the sweet ending celebrating families of all kinds. To reiterate this message, my daughter and I made a frame that celebrates our family. We glued 4 craft sticks together to create a square.
Next, we talked about the types of things that represent our family. We used stickers, foam shapes and markers to decorate the outside of the frame with items and pictures that we felt represented us. Finally, I glued a picture of us to the back of the frame and wrote our family name underneath it.
In addition to the fun that you can have learning together, the theme of family is celebrated throughout this book, making it a great one for your family bookshelf!
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