Hobbies And Interests
Imaginary Animals
In his book “Children’s Games from Around the World,” Glen Kirchner recommends a game from New Zealand called “Animals.” This active game for children ages 9 to 12 teaches cooperation and teamwork.
Divide players into two or three teams with no more than 12 people per team. The teacher or game leader describes a mythical or real animal and challenges each team to work together and create the animal using only their bodies. For example, the teacher might describe an animal with two heads and six legs. In response, three players might stand close together with the middle person bending at the waist so it appears that the group has six legs but just two heads.
After they have created their animal, give them an additional challenge by requiring them to move themselves at least 10 feet.
Animal Sounds Bingo
Preschoolers and early readers will enjoy this variation of bingo. Use an online bingo card creator to make cards with animal names or pictures. Cards with pictures are appropriate for preschoolers. Kindergartners will build their reading skills by using cards with animal names. The DLTK-Kids website has an easy-to-use bingo card creator that includes pictures and words of farm and zoo animals.
Designate an adult or an older child as the caller. The other children take a card plus enough slips of paper to cover the spaces on their cards. Instead of saying an animal's name, the caller makes the appropriate animal sound. For example, the caller would neigh when pulling out a horse picture or meow when selecting a cat picture.
Players cover each called-out animal picture with a piece of paper. The first person to cover all squares on his card wins the game.
Zookeeper
The Family Education website recommends this game, which is a way to take advantage of that bin full of stuffed animals sitting in your child's bedroom. It is a game that combines pretend play with book learning, making it appropriate for children up to 8 or 9 years.
Ask your child to pick out four or more stuffed animals from her collection. Give her a stack of reference books about animals. If she can’t read, ask an older sibling to help her find information about her animals. She needs to know each animal's habitat and food preferences. Ask her to use that information to draw a background poster or create a habitat with props found around your home. For example, if she has a stuffed dolphin, she could make a pool of water for it with blocks and blue construction paper.
Alternatively, your child could color pictures of desert, rain forest, a pond and other habitats. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website has free downloadable coloring sheets of different habitats.
She can also make small signs listing animal names and facts, similar to the placards found in many zoos.
She can give tours of her zoo to her parents, siblings and neighborhood kids.