Materials
- 3 or more books by Jan Brett
What to do
Display books by Jan Brett in your reading area.
1. Show the books to the children during circle or group time.
2. Explain that an author named Jan Brett likes to write and draw stories about all kinds of animals.
3. Ask the children to identify "same" and "different" qualities among the books.
4. Read a different book each day. Talk about the setting (habitat) in which the animals in the book live.
5. Review each book as indicated in the assessment (below). Assessment
Consider the following:
At the end of each story, point to the illustrations and ask the children to recall each animal by name.
Can the children name the habitat where each of the following animals live:
- dog (house/backyard)
- pig (farm)
- bear (woods)
- jaguar (rainforest) and
- lion
- (African plains)
-Susan Sharkey, Fletcher Hills, CA
Instructions
* The day before you do this activity, ask the children to wear pants with a belt
the next day so they can participate in this activity.
* Consider having some spare sets of large pants with belts available for those
children who have forgotten to wear pants and a belt for the day.
What to Do
1. Show pictures of animals with long and short tails. Talk about how tails help
animals maintain balance while climbing trees (squirrels), swat flies (cows and
horses), and jump (monkeys).
2. Give one page of newspaper to every child.
3. Ask them to roll the newspaper diagonally to form a hollow tube. To prevent
the tube from unraveling, tape the end corner of the newspaper.
4. Wrap masking tape all along the tube. Tie the tail to the children's belt with a
small piece of string so that the tail dangles from behind.
5. Let the children pretend to be animals and play in the classroom.
Assessment
Consider the following:
* Can the children point out an animal's tail?
* During snack time, can the children create edible tails with cooked spaghetti
on animal crackers or other similar materials?
* For a family night in the classroom, ask the children to search for and bring
in animals with tails in storybooks, magazines, and old newspapers they have
at home.
