Plants and animals

The mains aims of this activity are:

• To develop the ability to distinguish between living (animate) and nonliving (inanimate) things.
• To develop the ability to distinguish between plants and animals.
• To practise using substitute signs and symbols to represent real objects.
• To foster the pleasure of connecting with nature.
• To introduce the concept of classification -use specified categories to group living things.

DEVELOPMENTO OF THE ACTIVITY

1. To begin with, we are going to spread all the pictures (objects, plants, animals) on the floor and help the children group them into two families: living things (animate) and non-living things (inanimate).

Now play "Alive/Not alive": name a picture that belongs to one of the families, if it is alive, the children jump; if it is not alive they stand still.

2. Take away all the pictures of inanimate objects and spread the pictures of the plants and animals on the floor, asking the children what they all have in common. lf necessary, remind them that these are pictures of living things (animate).

Following, put out the schematic drawings of the houses and ask two or three children to divide the living things into two families. 

3. Ask the children to help you create symbols for the plant family and the animal family house. Let them make suggestions and choose the best ones. Alternatively, show them how to draw appropriate symbols and place each symbol next to the correct house.

Then, make two flags and put the animal symbol on one of the flags and the plant symbol on the other. Shuffle the pictures and then have the children help you place all the pictures in "Plant land" or "Animal land".

Then, ask the children about the differences between the "inhabitants" of plant land and animal land. ln the course of the discussion, help the children reach the following conclusions:

- Plants make their food themselves, using their leaves; they need sunshine, air and water to do this.
- Animals cannot make their own food.

Following, take all the animal pictures and talk about what the different animals eat. Then, divide the animals into two categories (two animal families) with plant eaters (herbivores) in one family and meat eaters (carnivores) in the other.

 RESOURCES

 

 

 

Who lives here?

The mains aims of this activity are:
  

• To develop the ability to use symbols to represent an adult and a child.
• To develop the ability to construct representations of a house and family.
• To use representations of a house and a family.
• To develop the concept of "an address".
• To learn their address - the number of the house and the name of the road.

To develop the ability to use substitute shapes to represent real objects.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE ACTIVITY

1. Before the session, ask parents to help you familiarise the children with their addresses (number and road name).

In class, show pictures of the bear family and talk about them; have Teddy ask the children questions about their families. 

Next, explain that Teddy wants to tell his family everything the children have said, but is worried because he cannot remember it all!, so show the children how Teddy can use large and small circles to help him remember. Establish that Teddy can use big circles to represent the adults in a family and small circles for the children.

2. Give each child a sheet of paper with a house on it and a glue stick; help the children choose appropriate circles for each member of their own households and stick them.

Have the children use their representation to tell Teddy about their families and following, have Teddy ask each child for their address ("in case I want
to visit you"). 

Write the address on the paper as the child gives Teddy the information; have the list of addresses ready in case the children need help; give Teddy the representations to "take back home to the forest".

3. Help each child make a special reminder of his/her addres, using small plastic cups with lids ("your house") and display the child's name prominently on the side (for example, "Jack's House"). 

To finish, help each child put large and small circles into the cup to represent every member of his/her household and ask them individually their house number and the name of their road for write this information on the top of each cup. Tell the children that they can use their special cups to show visitors their addresses.

RESOURCES