Animal Motions in the Classroom...
Here is author Melissa Pilgrim and the students at the White Pine Montessori school in Bethlehem, N.H. all having fun acting out the book!
(Photo taken by the school's director, Erin Woo.)
FREE Lesson Plans
FREE Lesson Plans Available for Preschool (ages 3-4) & Kindergarten (ages 5-6)!
Animal Motions can be done at home, schools, libraries, or anywhere a safe environment is provided for the child to move as he or she does the simple routine.
Animal Motions will both entertain and teach being “creatively fit” at the same time naturally, but the lessons involved can also be divided into these different subject matters:
Health & Fitness
Animal Motions can help with health and fitness topics by showing children how to maintain healthy lifestyle habits, including:
* Developing a fundamental learning skill promoting good health and an active lifestyle early in life to help prevent becoming overweight or even obese later on (which is a national concern with children aged 3 and over).
* It is a simple, easy-to-follow story using simple movements and some yoga-like poses that most all children can learn to do while having fun and learning that being healthy should be part of their everyday life.
* Develops confidence with regards to how a body moves in many different ways.
* Makes it easy to get a bit of low-impact exercise into a child’s life by reading this book in either a classroom setting or at home.
* The story’s routine can be done by the adult reading it with the child too, thus creating a healthy habit for everyone who follows the book’s movements regularly together.
For Preschool, ages 3-4, Health & Fitness
(Please click on the above link to read and print out this lesson plan.)
For Kindergarten, ages 5-6, Health & Fitness
(Please click on the above link to read and print out this lesson plan.)
Drama
Animal Motions can help with drama topics by spurring creativity, including:
* Shows a child how they can use their own imagination to have fun and pretend they are in different settings and acting like 17 different animals like the main character in the book does throughout the story.
* Develops a confident stage presence with regards to how a body moves in many different ways while acting like the many different animal characters in the book.
For Preschool, ages 3-4, Drama
(Please click on the above link to read and print out this lesson plan.)
For Kindergarten, ages 5-6, Drama
(Please click on the above link to read and print out this lesson plan.)
Combined Biology & Geography Lesson
For Biology: Animal Motions teaches about 17 different kinds of animals with regards to their names and how they move and look so young children will learn to identify them.
For Geography: Animal Motions teaches children about different habitats and environments animals live in as they travel from the jungle, to the ocean, to the forest, and so on throughout the story.
For Preschool, ages 3-4, Biology & Geography
(Please click on the above link to read and print out this lesson plan.)
For Kindergarten, ages 5-6, Biology & Geography
(Please click on the above link to read and print out this lesson plan.)
Disclaimers:
* These lessons plans are provided as a general template only. Teachers are welcomed to implement accommodations or adaptations to the lessons given based on their own student’s individual needs, whenever needed, or according to their school’s (or state’s) course study or curricula needs.
* The movements in this book are presented for entertainment purposes and are easy and gentle to do provided they are done slowly in an adequate, safe environment. The publisher, author, and illustrator each take no responsibility (and disclaim all liability) in connection with the use of any of these movements in all individual cases. Follow the movements in this book at your own risk, and if you have any doubts about the suitability of any of the motions mentioned please consult a doctor before attempting.
 | ||||||
Bonus Art Post-Activity!
students can color after doing any of the above lesson plans. (Drawn by Ira V. Gates.)
Note: Posters are sized 8” by 11” and are best printed with black ink and on standard white paper. (The green border frame will not print out.)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
