Here are some activities all about animals

There are some lovely things to do, you need to read this through and gather together the things you will need

Today's Book The Ugly Duckling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyrmcD8Yml0

Read the story or watch it on youtube. Then are activities to use throughout the day/week.

Talk about the story, and how the duckling grew into a beautiful swan. Talk about "When I'm a big boy/girl....." " I can be kind by....."

Bath time. Put some rubber ducks in the bath. Pretend the bath is a pond. Play out the story of The Ugly Duckling. Have a slash time in the bath. Talk together about how the duckling felt when he was rejected. Emphasise the importance of being kind as well as showing care and concern. 

Baby animals and their names. Talk about the names of baby animals dog – puppy; cat – kitten; cow - calf; duck – duckling; pig – piglet. Find pictures and photographs. Make the noises. Sing Old MacDonald had a Farm

Read one of the Percy the Park Keeper stories by Nick Butterworth, make the animal noises. 

Read Animal Noises by Dawn Apperley.

Baby animals, talk about different baby animals and what they grow into, for example a puppy grows into a dog. Think about what they need – food and water, kindness a caring

Sing 5 Little Ducks went Swimming One Day. Use your fingers to count with the song

Find all your toy animals, where there are parents as well as their young, match the big ones with their babies.

Water Play The ugly duckling’s water adventure. In advance, take a piece of drainpipe, or a plastic chute, and a big bowl outside. Prop up the drainpipe, sloping it into the bowl, use jugs to make the water flow down into the bowl. Put the rubber ‘ugly’ duckling at the top of the pipe. Watch it slide down into the ‘pond’.

Think about what we need to stay healthy. We need to eat, drink and sleep, washing our hands, or brushing our teeth.

Listen to There Once was an Ugly Duckling on video, sing and dance to the music

Pretend play Find anything soft or furry to make a den, dress up as animals and make animal noises

Textures  Make a ‘feely board’ of different textures to explore. Include furry material and wool.

Talk about animals' coats. Dogs and cats have fur, while the tortoise has a shell.

Sing 2 Little Dicky Birds, sing together, use one finger from each hand to represent the birds.

Counting, help the children to count how many animals and how many legs in a photo. What about the number of eyes or tails?

Play the animal pairs card game you will need 20 cards – 2 of each animal. Turn all the cards upside down on a table. Turn over 2 cards. Keep them if they match or turns them back over if they don’t.

Elephant movements in a space, act out how the elephant moves. Stamp and use arms as a trunk. Put some music to their elephant movements. If you hear a drum – stamp around; a triangle – tiptoe etc.

Sing An Elephant Goes like This and That

Instruments choose different instruments to represent different animal noises. For example: drum – elephant; whistle – bird. You will find some good instruments in your kitchen cupboard! Pots, pans, spoons etc

Loud and soft noises make both loud and soft noises