Welcome to our “Learn & Play – Animal Activities” series. In this series, we picked a few favorite animals and built a day of learning fun filled with activities to study each animal. For this day, we focused on awe-insprining elephants! We watched a few videos, read some books, wrote some creative stories, had fun with crafts, and played some games. Read on to check out the fun!
A TYPICAL DAY
All kids are different and you can definitely vary your day with whatever works for you 🙂 Our relaxed & learning fun day kicks off with an introduction to the day’s theme. Then, we move onto videos and themed activities (reading, writing – or story telling – time, crafts, food crafts/snacks, and games or experiments). Feel free to pick and choose whatever works for you 🙂
INTRO
Chances are you little one already knows what an elephant looks like – either from a zoo, pictures, or cartoons! If not, these sites are great introductions with kid-friendly facts, images, and related content! They’re perfect for providing a brief intro for your little ones (or to gather up some knowledge as well!)!
WHAT TO WATCH
We find that mixing in a short video themed to our day is a great way to add some learning fun! We try to pick informative videos OR mix in a cartoon favorite (where they don’t even realize they’re learning). Below are some of the videos we picked from for the day:
- Elephant Facts for Kids by Homeschool Pop (7m)
- What Do Elephants Use Their Trunks For? By Smithsonian Channel (1m)
- Why Do Elephants Have Trunks by Animal Planet (6m)
- The Secret Language of Elephants by SciShow (6m)
FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS
What’s more fun than taking a break and having a simple snack??? Including the snack in your theme of the day! We find that our kiddos are more than happy to eat the snacks they create especially when they can arrange them into fun shapes and scenes!
- Elephant Shaped Sandwiches (made with the elephant cutter from Sandwich Cutters)
- Animal Crackers! Elephants are in several brands of animal crackers 🙂
READING
It’s no secret that reading is an important part of learning, which is why we pick out a handful of books that are fun and filled with some learning tidbits. For our older ones, we have them fill out some worksheets (or let them create some of their own comics) to describe what they read and/or learned! These are a few we picked from for the day:
- Biggie Books by Mo Willems. If you have a younger child, chances are you’ve heard of Biggie and Friends! They’re geared toward younger kids with lots of pictures 🙂
- National Geographic Readers: Great Migration Elephants by Laura Marsh. This one is great for early readers – it’s a level 3. It still has large print and lots of pictures but it’s also filled with facts, perfect for kids who want to learn more!
- The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. This one is fiction and for older kids (it’s a chapter book). And as an added bonus, there’s a Disney film based on the book 🙂
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing is a great way to keep kids learning by both encouraging their creativity and thought process as well as helping them practice their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: ELEPHANT, TRUNK
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices. This was our writing prompt of the day (and we offered up some examples as well) but definitely pick something your kiddo might be interested in writing about!
- If you were an elephant, what would your favorite thing to do with your trunk be?
- If an elephant could live the life of a human for a day, what do you think they would find easier? What about harder?
CREATE & CRAFT
If you’ve got a crafty little one, a simple craft is a great way to keep them interested in the topic. While their creative juices are flowing, you can also chat about what they’ve learned so far or ask them what else they’re excited about learning!
For our crafts of the day, we gave them a few options that would help them enhance their pretend play or add in some of what they learned.
- Elephant Drawing. This one is simple. Give them some crayons, markers, and paint and have them create some elephants 🙂
- DIY Balloon Elephant Card by Glued to My Crafts
- DIY Elephant Pots. We found this one at the Dollar Tree but there doesn’t appear to be a link for it. Alternatively, you can pick up a set of 12 from here.
STEM & STEAM ACTIVITIES
While crafting and writing get their creativity and imagination flowing, we also like to add in an activity that gets them thinking along the lines of science, technology, engineering, or math! These engaging activities or experiments are a great way to keep them learning!
- At-Home Science Experiments: Elephant’s Toothpaste by Scholastic
- Mini Blocks Animal Series. These are much smaller than legos but reasonably doable for “lego experts” (older kids).
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for checking out our at home learning fun article! If you enjoyed this post, please let us know what you think in the comments below and/or follow us on Pinterest
Also, if you haven’t already, check out the rest of our Learn & Play – Animal Activities or our other DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
