Animal Day
Good morning fashionistas! My name is Donna and I'm a teacher, storyteller and author. This week we’re thinking about animals! Have you ever wondered what outfits your favourite animals would wear?
Today we will be dressing up and getting our grown-ups to guess who we are. Next we will be dressing up our toys for an animal catwalk. After all the dressing up fun, we will be drawing our animals and making up our own animal poems!
Donna reads her story ‘Goats Don’t Wear Capes.’
Ever wondered how a chimpanzee would dress for dinner? Or the most practical outfit for a pig who loves mud? 'Goats Don't Wear Capes' captivates the imagination with funny insights into the fashion choices of your favourite animals. Rather than counting sheep, your children will be planning their animal outfits!
After hearing the story let’s all dress up!
You have 10 minutes to find three different items to dress up in. Only use items that you can find in your house, get your parents or brothers and sisters to join in too! You could be someone famous or a fictional figure. Anyone you like. We’ll come back in 10 minutes to compare outfits. Can you guess who I am? I’m Harry Potter with a light sabre! Did you bring any stories together? Did you cross Mary Poppins with The Wind in the Willows? Or make a bird into a writer like my friend Wincy here.
This activity encourages creativity, hand to eye coordination, ability to recognise people/figures and to synchronise knowledge of popular culture with household objects. It is easier to pick a person first and then find items to ‘dress up’ as them (a bin bag and a broom are always good for ‘The Worst Witch’ or a cloak, hat and scarf for ‘The Mad Hatter’).
Animal Catwalk
Now you’ve had fun with fancy dress, it’s the turn of your favourite toys. Can you dress your toys up in clothes? Maybe they’ll fit in dolls clothes or some of your old outfits? Can you dress up your toys and send us some pictures to this page? We’d love to see their outfits!
This activity encourages creativity, hand to eye coordination, ability to recognise people/figures and to synchronise knowledge of popular culture with household objects. It is easier to pick a person first and then find items to ‘dress up’ as them (a bin bag and a broom are always good for ‘The Worst Witch’ or a cloak, hat and scarf for ‘The Mad Hatter’).
Animal Doodle
For our next activity I want you to draw one of your animals in their outfits. It can be whichever one you want. You can use pencils, crayons or paints.
This activity encourages children to talk about their ideas and use their imaginations. It also encourages children to think about perspective in drawing and identifying the key features of a portrait.
Develops children’s understanding of the world, creativity, communication and language skills.
Animal Poem
Can you write a poem about an animal wearing an outfit? How does the animal feel to be wearing one? Can you think of a silly situation to put them in? A penguin wearing a dinner jacket to visit the zoo? A crocodile dressed in a tutu to go to the supermarket?
Can you work together with your child to write a poem about the animal wearing the outfit? We would love you to share them with us.
Extension
Click the link for more animal activities for children: