Week 2 - The New Normal - Wild about animals

Is it just me or did this week feel looooooong...?  

We had our ups and downs this week and everyone was feeling a bit emotional, so please don't feel like the photos below are an accurate representation of our whole week, they are definitely the A-reel shots! Here's our highlights for the week with a few activities that you may want to try.

The kids led the way with their learning this week and it seemed to revolve around animals.  

Play is such an important part of learning and also a great way for children to work through their thoughts and feelings.  There has obviously been lots of talk about the ways that we can stay healthy and that the Coronavirus is making some people very sick.  These themes clearly came through in their play this week when the kids decided to set up a hospital for their toys. They LOVED this activity and played for ages outside in the sunshine, win, win!

We continued our animal theme with these awesome daily videos by Tim Faulkner and the Australian Reptile Park.  You can view a Wildlife Talk and Feeding Time for different animals every weekday via videos on their Facebook page or Youtube channel.  The Australian Reptile Park is definitely going in our wish jar as a place that we would like to visit when this is all over.

Tim's Wildlife talks are perfect for children and are filled with fun facts, amazing animals and an easy follow-up activity at the end.  These videos were a highlight of our week, especially these ones about the tawny frogmouth and rainbow lorikeets as we have a few of these amazing birds near our house and it was great to find out more about them.

On one of our family walk the kids decided to look for birds.  Which was perfect timing as Parks Victoria's Junior Rangers had just sent out their activity for the day which was all about birds!  Click here to link to the activity sheet.  You may also choose to email them your completed worksheet and go in the draw to win a MacPac voucher up to $100! (Entries close Sunday April 12th, 2020).

We wrapped up the week with some painting based on the amazing artwork by Pete Cromer.  Pete has kindly uploaded 3 free craft activities for kids and they are great independent activities for all those parents out there that need a break.  Click here to view download the activities.

We didn't do many formal learning activities this week but I've listed some ideas below if you would like to extend them into further learning tasks: 

 - Research your favourite animal and create a project/poster or report.  Where does it live?  What does it eat?  Is it a predator or prey?  Describe what it looks like?  List some interesting facts about your animal.  

- Visit Pete Cromer's website and explore his artwork.  What shapes and colours does his use?  Create your own animal using a collage. 

- Write a story about an animal that goes on an adventure.

- Go on a walk with your family around the neighbourhood.  List and tally all the animals that you see.  When you return home sort your data: e.g. Group them into categories such as fur, feather, skin or scales.  Tally how many you saw of each type of creature.  Create a bar graph or pictograph of the animals that you saw and add to it each day.  Write out your findings.  Which creature did you see the most?  Which one did you see the least?  Would the data be the same if you continued it for a week?  Why? 

- Join the Zoo Victoria STEM challenge   to design enrichment activities and shelters for a giraffe or little penguin (Primary School webinars: Tuesday 7 April 2.30-3pm AEST, Thursday 9 April 2.30-3pm AEST and Secondary School webinars: Wednesday 8 April 2.30-3pm AEST and Thursday 9 April 3.30-4pm AEST) 

Leave a comment below and let us know which activities that your family enjoyed this week.  Stay safe everyone. 

Disclaimer - Please note that the suggested activities are within government recommended guidelines for Melbourne, Australia as at April 5th, 2020 – please check in with current recommendations for your location and use common sense when choosing activities to do with your children.

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