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 on this Earth! For this day, we learned all about the oh-so-popular smilodon, or sometimes called the saber tooth tiger! Read on to check out a fun filled day of learning, reading, crafts, and activities all on the ferocious saber tooth cat!
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
If your little one has happened to watch some well known movies about the Ice Age, they may already be familiar with the saber tooth cat and/or the term saber tooth tiger. But they may not know that the saber tooth tiger was not actually a tiger at all or that thousands of their fossils were found in a tar pit in California! If you need a refresher or a quick intro, these sites have some great 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:
- The Ice Age Dinosaurs | Cartoon For Kids | Smilodon | I’m A Dinosaur by Dinosaur – I’m a Dinosaur (17m)
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 selected a popular cereal. Though our ice age animal of the day is actually not a tiger, our snack featured a well known tiger on the box – Frosted Flakes!
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:
- Saber-Toothed Casts by Ashley Gish
- Sabre-Tooth Tiger (Smithsonian Prehistoric Zone) by Gerry Bailey
- Sabertooth Tiger: Smilodon by Gary Jeffrey
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, SABER TOOTH CAT, SMILODON
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!
- Do you think it would be fun to be a smilodon? What types of adventures would you have?
- If you came face to face with a smilodon, what would you do?
- Imagine you were a smilodon. How would you feel having large, sharp teeth?
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!
- Prehistoric Dioramas – Using the saber tooth from the Prehistoric Life Toob, kids can create a realistic diorama of the saber tooth’s environment.
- Coloring Pages – How To Draw A Saber-Toothed Tiger (Smilodon) by Art Hub for Kids
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!
- Lego Sets – Legos are always a fun activity for little master builders. While the kit we found is not technically Lego, it did have a few animals who fit into lego sets.
- Compare & Contrast Worksheet – Have kids pick out a mammal that exists today which they believe is similar to the smilodon or a saber tooth cat. Then have them do some research to compare and contrast.
- Clay Tooh – with a mix of stem and craft, creating a smilodon tooth out of clay can be a real eye opener as to how large the smilodn’s tooth was! Make sure they measure correctly to create an accurate size!
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!
