Amazing Animal Match-Up Game
In this activity, your child will play a game to match animals’ body parts. Together you will observe and compare body parts to match with other players’ animal cards. Then your child will explain the similarities and differences. Have fun!
Materials
Directions
Print out the Amazing Animal Match-Up printable. Cut out the cards. Fold each card so the animal is on one side and the body part icons are on the other side. Glue or tape the edges of each card together. Make sure you have at least as many cards as players. If you need more cards, make extra copies!
Go over the body part icons with the players. Then shuffle the cards. Give every player a card.
Every round, players will use a Matching Rule to find someone to match with. To start, tell the players, "Find someone whose animal has something that matches the animal you have." Players should walk around and compare animals to find a match. Players cannot match with another animal that is exactly the same. (Example: Polar bear cannot match with another polar bear.)
Ask each pair, "What is the same about your two animals?" Encourage our child to use evidence to explain. Two animals may match even if that feature is not on the backs of the cards. (Example: “Our animals match because they are both gray!”)
Play as many rounds as you like! You may keep the same cards or get new cards each round. You may use the same Matching Rule each time or use a different Matching Rule.
Encourage players to explain some ways that animal bodies are different. Encourage them to explain some ways that animal bodies are the same.
Explore Further
Try these Matching Rules!
- Match more than one feature. For example, ask your child, "Can you find someone else whose animal has two things that are like your animal?"
- Make pairs of animals with features that do not match. For example, an animal that has wings and an animal that does not have wings.
- Make pairs of animals that have one thing that matches and one thing that does not match. For example, one animal has a tail and a beak, and another animal has a shell and a beak.
- Make up a Matching Rule that is not on the cards. For example, match animals that have the same number of legs (two legs or four legs).
We hope you had fun together! Snap a photo of you and your child doing the activity and share it with us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. We’d love to see how it turned out!
Want more “Hero Elementary” activities? Check out the Sounds High and Low activity and the Lid Top Slide game to continue the fun!
Photographs by Chelsea Foy.
Science