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Learning about Animal Diets with Kids

January 14, 2019 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

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My kids, like almost all kids, love learning about animals. We’ve studied animal habitats, animals who are nocturnal and diurnal, and animals who hibernate already.

With our youngest, though, it was time to learn about animal diets: which animal eats what. And nothing makes that concept more real than a field trip to interact with actual animals.

Oh – and our animal diets lesson from BookShark was a huge help too!

Learning about Animal Diets with BookShark

Read on to see how we learned about herbivores and carnivores with our small students!

And for more hands-on ways to study animal science, don’t miss our Sharks Food Chain Game for kids!

Disclosure: I am a BookShark brand ambassador and am receiving free curriculum as part of my role.

Animal science isn't complete without a lesson on animal diets. See how we learned about herbivores and carnivores with BookShark!

Studying Animal Diets with Kids

We started our lesson with a section in BookShark’s Level 1 animal science curriculum. BookShark uses a book-based approach to learning and science is no different.

BookShark Animal Diets Lesson

In the Usborne Book of Animals, we examined how different animals eat different things. Some eat plants and seeds (herbivores), while some eat other animals (carnivores).

BookShark Animal Diets Printable Lesson

Interestingly, you can usually tell which animal eats what by looking at the shape of their mouths and the shape of their teeth. That is, if you can get close enough to one to actually check that out.

After a bit of reviewing, our first grader learned how to distinguish the carnivores and herbivores.

But, there’s nothing like seeing animals firsthand to help kids remember what they learned!

Learning about Animal Diets

So we took a trip to a nearby wildlife refuge to see some herbivores and carnivores up close!

We saw bison. (herbivores)

Visiting a Wildlife Refuge to Learn about Animal Diets

We met chickens. (herbivores)

Observing Animal Diets

This positively regal turkey was quite a sight. (herbivore)

Studying Animal Diets at a Wildlife Refuge

The tropical birds were gorgeous, but incredibly loud too. (herbivores)

Feeding Animals at a Wildlife Refuge

The kids even got a chance to feed deer by hand. (herbivores)

Learning about Herbivores and Carnivores

From far away, we spotted a white tiger. (carnivore)

As you can see, you can also tell what eats what by how close you’re allowed to get to the animal. 🙂

Studying Animal Diets with Kids

A very friendly zebra came up to the fence to meet us. (herbivore)

Close Encounters with Animals at a Wildlife Refuge

This sweet donkey was docile enough to be petted. (herbivore)

Observing Animals Who are Omnivores

Finally, we met a grizzly bear, which we learned eats both plants and met (primarily fish). So we had a chat about the animals who aren’t really herbivores or carnivores – they’re omnivores.

Which is what most humans identify as too. I think my kids might be dessert-ivores, though.

If you want to get a closer look at how you can learn about animal diets with the kids, take a look at BookShark’s curriculum to see how the program covers animals for early learners!

Stop by to see these other ideas for studying animals!

Help early learners get to know some of the wild creatures who live at the zoo with these printable zoo animal flashcards for kids!

Learn about the fascinating world of sharks with this printable shark food chain game!

Use these printable polar animal notebooking pages to learn about winter animals and the regions where they live!

And get more ideas for learning animal science on my It’s Science Pinterest board!

Filed Under: Homeschool Curriculum, Science Tagged With: animals, bookshark, science

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Hi! I'm Selena, a teacher and a veteran homeschool mom to four. I'm so glad you're here!
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