Animal Theme

Hand-imals - The students traced their fingers on coloured paper and we created animals from them. Using hands in a sort of tiling effect, we made "Disco Pants" for a rabbit (the last activity from the Easter theme that also served as a linking exercise.) The hands can be turned on their sides to make fish, or joined with other hands to make crabs. We used them as wings for birds, tentacles for jelly fish, and ears for elephants. You can just use your imagination. We made two caterpillars - one long and one short - with the hands being the legs. They look just great.

green ball Big Animals -Recently I went to Musgrave Hill SEDU at Southport on the Gold Coast. On the wall they had made a giant possum and the children had glued fur all over it. It looked so lovely and soft we just wanted to pat it. An equally large emu had been made for another wall. It was covered in brightly coloured feathers and looked fantastic. The children had also made animal masks from paper plates. Some other animals, such as platypus and koalas, were made using paper plates as the bodies and attaching paper cut outs of limbs and heads.

green ball KidCuts - a great programme from the makers of KidPix. I love this programme because it encourages students to be creative both on the computer and in the concrete sense. The mask section has butterfly and cat masks. The animals section lets you create cut out/stand up sharks, horse/unicorns, elephants and tigers.

The Animal Game - Our BushNet sysop, Guy Carpenter, has developed an online animal game. Children select an animal and then the game asks questions to try and guess the game. If the children select an animal that the game can't guess, they can add the animal to the database.

Looking After A Pet - This was inspired by a unit written by my teaching partner, Terressa Searle. It involves Social Studies, Science, Living Skills, Functional Language and Functional Mathematics. It is a lot of fun.

green ball Grouping - Firstly, have the students find animals in magazines and cut them out. This is a great fine motor activity, as well as a chance to name different animals. We made up 5 charts with the following headings: Australian Animals, Wild Animals, Pets, Water Animals, and Farm Animals. The students had to group pictures of animals and glue them on the respective posters.

green ball And The Cat Went Fiddle-I-Fee- An art and craft activity around this traditional song.