🦒🐋🐒 Mammals
I hope you enjoy the Mammals Lesson Plan! Here is a quick overview:
What Are Mammals? - Printable Book
Mammal Sorting
Brown Bear, Brown Bear Storyboard
Point of View: The Three Little Pigs
Animal Roll and Cover - Math Game
Animal Estimation
Elmer Craft
World Zoology 3-Part Cards
Arctic Mammals Habitat
Tabata! Animal Exercises
And more...
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Enjoy! Tiff
🦒🐋🐒 Mammals
What Are Mammals?
Writing can be intimidating for young learners. Help make it fun with this "What Are Mammals?" Printable Book.
Learn what makes an animal a mammal and how to identify them. Learn about different types of mammals, then write about your favorite. Also includes 6 vocabulary word cards.
Mammal Sorting
We loved this simple figurine sorting activity. First, we read “Is a Camel A Mammal” from the Cat In The Hat Learning Library.
Then, we gathered all our animal figurines and sorted them into two piles: Mammals and Non-Mammals, but Mammals and Reptile sorting would work great as well.
Figurines:
English Language Arts
Brown Bear, Brown Bear Storyboard
My daughter loves to tell stories, so we started using our white board and magnets as a storyboard. She sets up the story and then narrates what happens as she draws pictures or points. It’s really fun and at the end it’s so fun to see the story depicted visually.
Supplies: Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See Book; Eric Carle Magnets, Magnetic White Board and Dry Erase Markers
Point of View: The Three Little Pigs
Introduce the concept of point of view with the classic tale of the Three Little Pigs. First, read the original story. We read this version from 5 Minute Stories.
Next, read “The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!” as told from the perspective of A. Wolf.
Then, have your students re-tell each story from both perspectives as a way to practice narration and comprehension. My daughter loves storyboarding so we used magnets we made ourselves.
Reading Lessons
There are only two resources I like to make sure I include on each week’s lesson plan, Prodigies Music (below) and Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons. This book has thousands of 5 star reviews on Amazon for a reason. It’s an effective, no-prep way to teach reading. We have completed this program and the results have been amazing, my daughter can pretty much read anything.
The lessons are short (15-20min), easy to grasp and sequential. The entire lesson is scripted and color coded so it’s fool proof, just read the words in pink. Their claim is that after completing all 100 lessons your child will be able to read at a 2nd grade level!
Math
Animal Roll And Cover
Practice addition as you roll your way to 50. We used our giraffe figurine from our Safari Wild Toob to mark our place. Then we took turns rolling a dice to move. The first person to 50 wins!
This set has sheets that go up to 20 and 50 and you can choose from several zoo animals.
Supplies: figurine or marker, dice
Animal Estimation
By: Mrs. Prezzz
Practice estimating quantities without counting each one. Encourage your students to guess how many of each animal there are. Bonus points for guessing how many total mammals there are!
Art and Music
Elmer Craft
By: Teachers.net
We love Elmer the elephant! If you haven’t read the Elmer book series yet, it is an amazing story about a patchwork elephant that embraces his differences.
This was a fun low-prep craft that my girls really enjoyed. Just cut 1 inch squares of construction paper and print the background. Then create your own patchwork elephant.
Prodigies Music
Do…Re…Mi…
We love Prodigies! Prodigies Music is simply an incredible curriculum for teaching music. Ages 2-5 is the critical time to develop a life-long sense of pitch. Their curriculum is designed to develop a sense of pitch with easy to use desk bells that don’t require any tuning. They also teach piano, recorder and ukulele. Their subscription includes everything you can think of 450+ videos, worksheets, free bell mats, sheet music all color coded so it’s super easy to learn. If you don’t have an instrument they have a bunch of rhythm focused content that doesn’t require an instrument. They even have a free bell app that I use with my toddler when my oldest is practicing.
They have a free trial and discounts for annual memberships! Great deal! You can even check out some of their videos for free on YouTube.
Science - Mammals
Mammals For Kids
By: Learn Bright
This is the perfect video to introduce the concept of animal classification. First, it explains the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates and the 5 main types of vertebrates. Then, the video explains the main characteristics of mammals in detail and shows examples of different types of mammals.
The Three Different Ways Mammals Give Birth
By: Ted Ed
This is a fascinating video on the three different ways mammals give birth. First, it goes over the basic characteristics of mammals, then it explains the three types of mammals: placental, marsupial and monotremes. I recommend this video for older children or young children who love science facts.
Social Studies
World Zoology 3-Part Cards
By: Research Parent
We love these free World Zoology 3-Part cards. My daughters recently discovered 3-Part cards and now want them for every unit. They love matching the images and text to the control cards and learning facts about all of the animals.
We used a felt continent set we found in the Target Dollar spot and matched the animals to the continents they are from.
Wild Videos
Looking for great animal documentaries? My girls have been enjoying the Wild series on Disney+. We love to watch these during lunch, it’s a great way to learn about animals in different regions.
The wild series includes Wild Uganda, Wild Portugal, Wild Russia, Wild Yellowstone, Wild Hawaii, Wild Chile, Wild Nordic, Wild Congo and Wild Central America.
Atlas Crate - Brazil
We love getting our monthly Atlas Crate in the mail. We just happened to have this Brazil crate with this incredible Three-Toed Sloth craft for Mammal Week.
Each kit includes information cards about a country, a recipe, two activities (crafts or games), and a stamp for your “passport”.
I’m pretty crafty, so most craft kits aren’t worth it for me. But their craft kits are exceptional and would be difficult to reproduce on my own. We also love the cards, they have great pictures and you add them to your adventure book each month.
Sensory Play
Arctic Mammals Habitat
This was a fantastic way to teach about the Arctic and the different animals that live in the extreme cold.
The floating iceberg was so much fun and helped illustrate how aquatic animals swim under the ice.
Filler: water, blue food coloring, aquarium gravel rocks.
Supplies: animal figurines, stackable cups and foam block.
Physical Education
Tabata! Animal Exercises
By: Go With Yoyo
Move like an animal with this fun animal themed exercise video. Move like a lizard, kangaroo, monkey, flamingo, star fish and try an alligator breathing exercise to calm down at the end! Each high intensity exercise is done for 20 seconds which is followed by a 10 second rest. Great for getting your heart pumping in a short amount of time.
Book List
Books We Love
- Big Tracks, Little Tracks (Let’s Read and Find Out Science)
- Little Kids First Big Book of Animals (National Geographic)
- Elmer
- Animal!
- A Great Day For Pup (Cat In The Hat Learning Library)
Don’t have the budget or space to get more books? The library has been pretty great for us so far, but they are sometimes out of the more popular books. One place that you can always count on to find great books is Epic Books! Try Epic Basic for FREE! You can find awesome read to me books for free, Unlimited plan includes access to 40,000+ books!
Know of any other awesome Mammals themed resources? Please comment below!
Do you know anyone else that would enjoy these free weekly lesson plans? Get them on the list!
