In May, our 3rd grade kindergarten students are learning about animals, a fascinating and fun topic for them. Young children are naturally curious about the world around them and, no doubt, animals are an important part of that world.
First of all, our kids have been identifying and naming common animals, such as fish, amphibians, birds, reptiles and mammals. Next, they have been learning about different animal features, such as if they have a backbone or not (vertebrates or invertebrates), their type of blood temperature (warm-blooded or cold-blooded) or the way they are born (egg laying or live birth). Then, they have also been learning about carnivores, herbivores and omnivores and how to group animals by what they eat. Finally, through the Thinking Based Learning (TBL) method and its tools (thinking map and thinking organizer), students have created a diagram to illustrate Top Down Classification of some of the animals they have learnt.
Besides, children have been given the opportunity to learn about the 5 stages of a frog life cycle: egg; tadpole; tadpole with legs; froglet and frog. After watching some videos about the life cycle of a frog, they have been encouraged to practice their sequencing skills by putting the picture pieces in the correct order.
Finally, they have played the game: Guess the animal sound. In this game, children have listened to different animal sounds and have tried and figured out which animal made that sound. Simple and perfect for kindergarteners!
