Animal homes

All animals build a home to protect themselves, to sleep, to eat and to reproduce, using different materials.

What is about:

teaching where do animals build their house and what type materials are used and why.

What do children learn:

children will learn why different animals build different nests (materials used, height, dimension, forms, etc), where these are found, and how to identify the animal builder by just observing their homes. They will also learn differences between reproductive nests and house nests.

Outdoor nature walks:

We will search and discover animal homes around the forest, garden or park. We will collect items that animals might use to build their nests such as twigs, feathers, leaves, dried grass, pine needles, branches, mud, etc. During the workshop, we will use containers, magnifiers, tweezers and field guide.

Indoor station:

Examples of animal home live samples (e.g. bird nests, insect nests, shells) will be shown and examined, as well the materials used to build them. We will focus on where different animal homes are found in a forest, garden or city park. The workshop provides live samples, identification cards, posters and books on the different animal homes.

Science activities:

• 4-10 years old: e.g. match game animals with their homes; how to build an animal house (bird, hedgehog, etc); how to build a bug hotel; …

• 1-3 years old: e.g. sensory bins with different natural materials used to build a nest (soft, hard); match game animals with their homes; …