Preschool Science and Motor Development Land vs Ocean Mammals Activity

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education blog! I'm Becca S. Go to my previous post to learn more about some of my degrees and experiences in teaching. I love being creative and love learning and teaching! This activity involves one of my favorite cognitive areas-science!

In the USA, Earth Day is celebrated on April 22. So I have an animal themed activity that is designed to check whether your little ones understand that animals can live in different environments. Within those environments, their habitats can vary. Birds have nests in trees and bushes. Bears have caves. Bees have hives.

In the previous post I showed a small-ish tarp and this activity also uses a tarp. If you are using a large indoor space, a plastic tablecloth or shower curtain could also serve as your base.

Here's the 5.5' x 7.5' tarp bought for about $2.50 plus tax.

The other 2 major supplies for early science are foam puzzle pieces I found at Dollar Tree recently. And because they have a variety of topics I latched onto 2 sets that had land mammals and the other had ocean creatures. What great resources to help little ones build their cognitive knowledge about classes of animals! And the 2 major supplies that are mainly to be used as eye-hand coordination targets are the frisbee discs. 

The cool thing is that these flying discs are going to be your two-fer in this activity. Besides being the targets, their colors are going to serve as codes for green grass/land and blue water/ocean categories.

Land vs Ocean Mammals Activity=

Close-up photos of the puzzle pieces:

Before doing this gross motor underhanded tossing activity please take time to have circle group or table meeting and discuss each animal featured. The land mammals show just the faces but there are distinguishing body parts that you can emphasize: whiskers, snouts, snout, tusks, mane, and more to point out and ask children questions on.

The ocean animals have tentacles, claws, tails, arms, and other characteristics to draw focus about. The gull can be set aside and used as a challenger puzzler mystery identifying question to the preschoolers. It's always good to stoke their curiosity and sense of mystery and wonder!

When you are ready for them to gather around the perimeter of the tarp, randomly go around and distribute the pieces. Before they can toss to "land" or "ocean" target, they have to say out loud what the animal name is and where it lives.

The eye-hand coordination building through this activity will also benefit the children as this skill is vital for writing and reading. Encourage children to toss their puzzle piece to hit the correct target.

For Earth Day let's encourage appreciation for all animals whether they live on land or in water!

Teaching and learning in the USA heartland,
Becca S

IL certification endorsements:
FACS grades 6-12
Birth to grade 3 ECE

and approval:
General science grades 5-8