Welcome to our “Amazing Ice Age Animals Week” – an at home camp filled with days of relaxed learning and fun activities all themed to learning about animals that once lived during the Ice Age! For this day, we learned all about the Giant Ground Sloth! Read on to check out a fun filled day of learning, reading, crafts, and activities all on awesome giants!
A TYPICAL DAY
All kids are different and you can definitely vary your day with whatever works for you 🙂 Our relaxed & learning fun day kicks off with an introduction to the day’s theme. Then, we move onto videos and themed activities (reading, writing – or story telling – time, crafts, food crafts/snacks, and games or experiments). Feel free to pick and choose whatever works for you 🙂
INTRO
Giant ground sloths may not be the most popular ice age animal but you may have seen them in museums or in pictures of other Ice Age animals. These massive creatures were much larger than their modern day counterparts and even left some massive underground caves in some areas! If you need a refresh or a quick intro, these sites are great for quick facts!
WHAT TO WATCH
We find that mixing in a short video themed to our day is a great way to add some learning fun! We try to pick informative videos OR mix in a cartoon favorite (where they don’t even realize they’re learning). Below are some of the videos we picked from for the day:
- When Sloths Were 20 Feet Tall by Animalogic (8m)
- Meet the Prehistoric Ground Sloth | Nature Bites by Nature Bites (2m)
Otherwise, if you’re wrapping up the day and want to sit down for a longer movie – Sid from Ice Age is actually a Giant Ground Sloth! It’s worth noting, though, that Ice Age’s depiction of the Giant Ground Sloth is in accurate – Sid is actually much smaller than he should be.
FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS
What’s more fun than taking a break and having a simple snack??? Including the snack in your theme of the day! We find that our kiddos are more than happy to eat the snacks they create especially when they can arrange them into fun shapes and scenes!
For our snack of the day, we cheated a bit and created sloths (vs. giant ground sloths), but it was close enough 🙂
READING
It’s no secret that reading is an important part of learning, which is why we pick out a handful of books that are fun and filled with some learning tidbits. For our older ones, we have them fill out some worksheets (or let them create some of their own comics) to describe what they read and/or learned! These are a few we picked from for the day:
- Giant Ground Sloth by Marc Zabludoff
- Graphic Prehistoric Animals: Giant Sloth by Gary Jeffrey
- Megatherium by Susan H. Gray
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing is a great way to keep kids learning by both encouraging their creativity and thought process as well as helping them practice their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: EXTINCT, ICE AGE, GIANT GROUND SLOTH
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices. This was our writing prompt of the day (and we offered up some examples as well) but definitely pick something your kiddo might be interested in writing about!
- If you were a tree sloth from the present and traveled back through time, would you think the Giant Sloth was your ancestor? What would you say to one?
- Would you rather be a Giant Sloth or a sloth from the present? Why?
- Would you rather have a Giant Ground Sloth or any of the types of sloths that live today as your buddy?
CREATE & CRAFT
If you’ve got a crafty little one, a simple craft is a great way to keep them interested in the topic. While their creative juices are flowing, you can also chat about what they’ve learned so far or ask them what else they’re excited about learning!
For our crafts of the day, we gave them a few options that would help them enhance their pretend play or add in some of what they learned. We did have a mix of giant ground sloth and modern sloths to add some more variety.
- DIY Sloth Corner Bookmark by Red Ted Art
- Adorable Sloth Craft for Kids by Big Family Blessings
- Giant Ground Sloth Coloring Page by Super Coloring
- Sloth Sewing Craft Kit
- Prehistoric Life Toob
STEM & STEAM ACTIVITIES
While crafting and writing get their creativity and imagination flowing, we also like to add in an activity that gets them thinking along the lines of science, technology, engineering, or math! These engaging activities or experiments are a great way to keep them learning!
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for checking out our at home learning fun article! If you enjoyed this post, please let us know what you think in the comments below and/or follow us on Pinterest
Also, if you haven’t already, check out some of our Digging Up Dinosaur Discoveries, Prehistoric Sea Creature Week, as well as our DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
