More Fun: Activities, Videos, and Related Content
Cross- Curricular Activities
Math
➢Ask the children to identify the shapes of the blocks Taylor used while building (rectangle, arch, square, triangle, pyramid, cylinder). Whether your students are learning simple shapes or exploring 3-dimensional forms, use the blocks you have available to help them sort and organize shapes by the number of sides.
Science
➢Animals can be identified by their distinctive physical traits. Using both the illustrations from The Rabbit Listened and pictures of the real animals, pair students up and ask them to name the features of each (chicken, bear, elephant, hyena, ostrich, kangaroo, snake, rabbit)
➢ Compare and contrast each group of animal habitats. What resources are available to the animals? How do they avoid predators?
Challenge students to determine how their physical traits help them survive where they live.
Reflection: What did you want to know and learn about your favorite creature? Make curiosity contagious by sharing videos and recordings of students’ favorite animals.
LEARN ABOUT: ANIMAL GROUPS
Animals around the world live and travel in different size groups.These groups have unique names and behaviors. Let’s look at some group names of our story animals.
Bears: Sleuth
Average Size: 2 to 5 bears
Bears , normally solitary animals, only live together with their mother when being raised ascubs . Bears do come together sharing hunting space at streams.
Elephants: Parade
Average Size: 8 to 100 elephants
Led by the oldest female member, called the matriarch , elephants can travel 35 miles daily for food.
Hyenas: Cackle
Average Size: Up to 80 hyenas
Known for their distinctive “ laugh” hyenas only make this noise under duress , or when in fear. While many think hyenas look like dogs, they are genetically closer to cats
Kangaroos: Mob
Average Size: 10 to 40 kangaroos
Found only in Australia, kangaroos use their strong tails to hop even further! As a marsupial , kangaroos carry babies in pouches.
Social Studies
➢ When the animals came to help Taylor, where they acting like responsible citizens? While each animal showed kindness to Taylor, some advice was wiser than others! Have your students vote for the animal they believe offered the best advice to Taylor and to the community. Offer students to opportunity to defend their votes and persuade their peers: you’ll be activating their critical thinking skills.
Language
➢ Discuss the sidebar in this guide: Introduce collective nouns as our way to name a group of people, animals, or things. Surprise students by exploring the many collective nouns they already know (ex. player/team, musician/band, tree/forest, kid/children).
Putting students in small groups, see if they can identify the collective nouns from these singular nouns:
student
flower
dog
shoe
singer
cow
employee
cookie
bird
