My mom sent Bear some plastic animals. (They're from Dollarama. Is that just in Canada?)
(There were also two tigers and a bear, but we removed them as those aren't from Africa.)
We sorted them into herbivores and carnivores.
I wasn't sure if this was a leopard or cheetah, so I did a little bit of research while Bear looked at her other animals. We found out that it is a cheetah. Cheetahs have black lines on their faces to absorb the sunlight and prevent them getting too much sun in their eyes. We also watched a neat video of a cheetah chasing a Thompson's gazelle. I warned Bear it might be scary, that the cheetah was going to kill the gazelle, but she said, "It's okay, Mommy. I watch it." It wasn't that gruesome.
The gazelle that came in her pack of animals is a Thompson's gazelle. You can tell by the black and white markings on the stomach. A gazelle is a kind of antelope.
(I think I learned more than Bear did this day!)
My mom also sent these sticker books with little Who Am I? activities. We did the wild animal one. Good review of French vocabulary.
I love plastic animals. They are such a great teaching tool. Makes learning about animals just that much more fun and hands on.
I LOVE those toobs of animals. I need to search for a South America one to go with our studies there.
ReplyDeleteI am with you on liking plastic animals. Unfortunately, daughter is mostly indifferent to them and doesn't play with them much. I don't see her becoming a vet or a zoo keeper :) But she liked animal scenes in Planet Earth and wasn't disturbed by killings. In fact, she was always rooting for predators.
ReplyDeleteYour mom is so thoughtful! We may be doing North American and African animals around the same time. JC seems to know the basics just from the wall map she has on the wall but it would be nice to add some new ones. Yours are great!
ReplyDeleteGreetings from South Africa! I have been following your blog for a while and I was thrilled to see this post about our part of the world! My 26 month old daughter is currently into giraffes, so I thought I'd share some facts about them with Bear: In our language, Afrikaans, they are called 'kameelperd' which comes from the original Roman name which translated to camelopard (camel plus leopard!) Giraffes have seven vertebrae in their necks, just like humans. The horns of females are usually more hairy than those of males, and a baby giraffe is already taller than two tall humans standing on each others' shoulders!
ReplyDeleteThanks Joyfulmama for those interesting giraffe facts!
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