Animal Guessing Game

Sorry I have been so MIA.  Life has just taken over!  I think I was holding my expectations to high with posting daily.  Until school is over, I’m going to make a more realistic goal- to post weekly.

Anyways, this is such a cute book that ties science into fun reading.  This book allows readers to guess which animals are pictured based on seeing one body part.  For example, when guessing the animals on the “tail” page, you only get to see the animals’ tails.  The next page shows the entire picture.  It’s a wonderful book to get readers engaged!

Here are some suggestions to do while reading to your child:

LISTENING :  Have your child close his/her eyes.  You hide somewhere in the room and make the noises of the animals in the book one at a time.  See if your child can point to where those sounds are originating.  Additionally, you can ask your child to make the noises of popular animals as you read about them.

RHYMING :  Make up silly words to rhyme with each animal you read about.

WORDS/SENTENCES:  Have your child pick a few of his/her favorite animals from the book.  Write their names on index cards and show your child each.  Read over them together a few times.  Then, write all the names together in one long train.  Give your child a highlighter.  Can he/she highlight one of the animals’ names?

SYLLABLES :  Have your child pick his.her favorite animal.  As you read the others’ names, have your child move like the syllables in those words for each one they hear.  For example, in giraffe, your child can act like a cat and make two claw motions for the two syllables.

PHONEMES :  Do an animal safari hunt.  Try to think of all animals that start with different letters of the alphabet.

LETTERS/SPELLING :  Have your child draw pictures of his/her favorite animal and write a caption underneath.  Help your child sound out the sounds, but don’t force perfect spelling.  Your child can even create an animal book, with a few sentences underneath hand-drawn pictures.

Have fun guessing!