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!
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.
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.
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).
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!
So we took a trip to a nearby wildlife refuge to see some herbivores and carnivores up close!
We saw bison. (herbivores)
We met chickens. (herbivores)
This positively regal turkey was quite a sight. (herbivore)
The tropical birds were gorgeous, but incredibly loud too. (herbivores)
The kids even got a chance to feed deer by hand. (herbivores)
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. 🙂
A very friendly zebra came up to the fence to meet us. (herbivore)
This sweet donkey was docile enough to be petted. (herbivore)
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!
And get more ideas for learning animal science on my It’s Science Pinterest board!
