Children will take care of the egg all daylong: it can't be left alone, because it could get lost, it could fall down or just be sad. It wants to be pampered and it wants its owner to sing for it from time to time. It wants to be all the time with the kid.

At the end of the week each pupil will show his/her egg to the rest of the class and will tell them about his/her experience.

P.D.: If the children are very young you can try the experience only for a couple of days.

Children have to color the masks and cut woolen threads and glue them on the masks as if they were whiskers. Teachers will help them to make the holes for the eyes and to fasten an elastic string in order to keep the mask in place.

Each child will have the two masks, one mouse-mask and a cat one. They will use each of them according to the role they are playing.

The kids will stand on a circle (they can sit down); one of the will be the cat and another one will be the mouse. The cat will pursue the mouse. If the cat touches the mouse, both animals "give each other his paw". Now they are friends and they want to show this fact to their mates; in this way they rub their noses and sit down together. The new players will be the kids just beside them.

While the cat and the mouse are running, the rest of the group must sing:

Mouse, the cat is tagging you!
Mouse, he is going to catch you!
If he can't do it tonight,
Tomorrow he will.
But don't be afraid
Because he will be your friend.

Once all of them have run, they stand up and run all at the same time. While singing the song, each cat must try to find his mouse

The other members of his/her group will help him/her to be the pet (they will use make-up and some objects from the "costume-corner").

All the members of each group will decide a name for the pet; after that, they will introduce it to the rest of the class.

The pet will walk around the children, imitating the animal he/she is representing. All the children in the class must pat it, tickle it and scratch it.

At the end of the activity each pet will tell the others about his/her experience: if he/she has liked it or if he/she hasn't, how he/she has been treated, what kind of caress he/she has liked the best and the least and which mate he/she would chose in order to be his/her pet

Today I am going to tell you something very important about some small animals that live around us and sometimes we don't even pay attention to them.

When we go to the countryside, or to a park or garden, if we pay a lot of attention, we can observe some very small animals: ants, ladybugs, butterflies, grasshoppers, spiders,... (each teacher will name the small animals of his/her own area)

These small animals like the flowers, the trees and the grass. They walk up and down the ways, going back and forth, looking for some food. They also walk because they like to take sunbaths. As they are so small, we have to take care in order not to step on them.

Ants live in ants' nests, which are like big cities built under the ground. These "houses" have plenty of corridors and tunnels where the ants circulate very fast.

In those cities different kinds of ants live:

The queens, who are the ones that have the young creatures
The workers, who have to do different jobs: some of them take care of the young creatures, some clean the corridors and the other ones go out to look for food. All of them have a job to do and all of them take care and protect each other.

If we put an ant on our hand, it will tickle us. But we don't have to hurt them, because if we do it, they can't go home with their families.

Now let's go to the playground and let's look for ants or other small animals. We have to observe them very carefully, paying attention to what they are doing and where they are going.

Once everybody is in the classroom again, each child has to draw the animal he/she has been observing and tell the others about the facts he/she has noticed (where was the animal going and what was it doing).

"They", the animals, feel and suffer in the same way as you do. And as I want you to be aware of this, I am going to tell you a story:

One day the pets of a neighbourhood got together while their owners were sleeping. They were telling their friends some stories about their houses and owners.
Mr. Cat said "In my house I live like a king. I have been living with them since..., since..., so much time..., when I was a kitty and they fed me with a feeding bottle".
Mr. Dog said "I always have cool water to drink, a very clean dish in which they always serve my food at the same time everyday. I am like another member of the family".
Mrs. Bowwow told the others: "I go with them for a walk everyday in the mornings, in the afternoons and at night. I have a very beautiful strap and a comfortable muzzle. And some weekends we also go to the countryside to play and run!".
Miss Miaow said, "All of you are very lucky. I live with some very naughty kids; they always play with my tail, and the other day they tied some empty bottles and cans to it, so when I ran, it made a lot of noise. I was so scared...!"
OOOOHHHHHHH, that's horrible!!!, all the animals said at the same time. And they added: "Don't worry, we will help you to find some good new owners."
So all of them planned an idea to look for a new owner for Miss Miaow, who never went back with those horrible children.

When the story is finished, the teacher will ask the children to close their eyes and think about the kind of pet they would like to be. Then each child will tell his/her mates what animal he/she has been thinking about. Now they have to imagine they are those pets. They have to tell the others what would be his/her name, where he/she would live (city, countryside), which would be his/her favourite food, who will take care of him/her,..

When a child brings his/her picture, he/she has to show it to his/her mates. He/she has to explain them something about how this animal live, or something about where it lives, etc. In order to know this he/she has to ask for information at home.

From time to time, the teacher will ask one of his/her pupils to show the pages of the book to the rest of the class. These have to say the name of the animal they are watching, or what does it eat, or if it is a wild or a tame animal,... , according to the orders from the boy/girl who is showing the book.

At this moment the pupils can suggest all the things they know about the animal. They can also speak about what kind of things they can do to protect the animals and to avoid the extinction of some of them. Besides, the children can comment on the benefits the animals can give us. All those ideas must be written in the back of the page in which the picture of that animal appears. With all this information we will make an encyclopaedia about the animals, the ones that live around us and even the ones which live very far away from us.

P.D.: If in our work center we have the chance to use internet, we can ask for information to other schools that take part in the Children's Club, in order to complete our book. In this way, we will have information about very distant and different environments.

Children will be quiet and they won't say anything about the animal that has been assigned to them. When the teacher says "go!" everybody has to move around the room, acting as if they were the animals the teacher has chosen for them (making the sound these animals usually do or moving like them). Besides, all of them must look for the members of their "own species".

When a child finds with a kind of animal that is not from their own species, he/she will try to help that animal telling him/her where he/she can find other creatures like him/her.

When a group is formed, the members must hold their hands and look for a place to remain at (it will be their hideout) till all the groups are completed.

The game can be enlarged if the teacher add sentences like these: "you have to find all the animal with feathers" or "all the animas that live in a farm", etc

Every child has to find several pictures of different animals (from magazines or folders). He/she will cut different parts of the animals, and with these portions he/she will create a new animal. The result of this composition can have the legs of a dog, the head of a hen and the body of a fish.

Children must give their animal a name, and then it will be hanged on the mural of the class. During all the week all the pupils have to do something for their creatures (a poem, a drawing about the place in which the animal would live, a seed to feed it, etc.)

So what they have to do with the animal is protecting it as if it was their pet, and tell their mates how it is and how it can be protected from other animals that can attack it.

One by one, the rest of them have to ask questions:

• Is it domestic or wild?
• Does it have legs?
• Where does it live, in the mountains or in the sea?…

And so on, asking questions until one of the members of the group guesses the animal. When this happens, everybody has to imitate such animal.

All the members of the group have to be the leader of the game (so all of them have to make a drawing). When the "gifts" are ready, they will be given to their new owners. When receiving it, everybody has to say "thank you".

If any child receives more than one drawing, he/she will share them with the one who doesn't have any.

Once in the classroom again, we will comment with the children: "perhaps you haven't noticed it, but birds are everywhere: in the gardens, at the coasts, in the cities... If you pay attention to them, you will discover plenty of fascinating things about them: what do they eat, how do they fly, what kind of noises do they make, ...

You know what? There are a lot of birds with different shapes and sizes, but all of them have some common characteristics:

They have feathers to keep them warm

They have two wings, although not all of them can fly (the ostrich can't fly because it is huge)

Their legs are covered with scales, and usually have two claws.

All of them have beaks and they are oviparous.

Now we know a lot of things about birds; but let's learn more things...

People, as you know, can talk, although not all of them do it in the same way: some speak English, some speak French, other people talk German and many more languages. Besides, some people speak very loud, some do it very fast; some have roar voices and others have squeaky ones. In spite of this, we love them all.

Now we are going to learn some different sounds birds make. Then we will compose a very special song. The class will be split up into groups and each group will represent a different animal. When the teacher show the picture of one of those birds, corresponding group will emit the sound.

If we have the chance, it would be interesting to take pictures or to record with a video camera the different animals and the noises and sounds that can be listened in a farm.

When we come back to the classroom, we will build a farm in it (you can also do the activity, although you haven't gone to a real one).

We will divide the classroom in different "corners" for the different animals of our farm: cows, sheep, horses, hens, pigs, ... Children will decorate these different corners with several materials: dolls, pictures, Play dough shapes, etc.

The teacher will elaborate a mural where the pupils can see the different activities the farmers have to do and when they have to carry them out. Taking into account the school timetable, the teacher will name some pupils to be responsible for taking care of the animals and for keeping the different sections. The pupils in the charge of these activities will make paper balls (as if they were seeds for the hens), they will prepare water for the animals to drink, ...

After a week, the teacher will organize a class reunion to comment with his/her pupils on the different activities they have been doing, if they have liked them or not, if all of them have been responsible as they were supposed to be...

he truth is that today we are going to listen to a very sad story. As all of you know, there are no dinosaurs any longer. But what is worst is that a lot of animals can also disappear if we don't respect our planet.

Do you know what are the species on the point of extinction? They are animals that can disappear in a short term; perhaps when you are older they won't exist anymore. If these animals disappear it will be because of the human beings. The population of the Earth needs more and more pieces of land to build houses and roads, to cultivate fruits and vegetables, ... And do you know what happens then? Then, the trees, the plants and the animals that live in these habitats become extinct, because their houses and their food disappear too.

There are also some animals that disappear because they are hunted or their furs are used to make fur coats (snakes, crocodiles, minks, jaguars, white stoat,...), or because some people want their bones, tusks and shells to decorate their houses (elephants, rhinos, tortoises,...).

The disappearance of some animals will be very sad and dangerous for all of us, so let's think about some things we can do to protect the animals. For example:

• to step on the ants. Is it a right behaviour? Why?
• to take the nests from the trees. Is it a good or bad behaviour? Why?
• ...

A not very large group of children (4 or 6) put the monkey-masks on (from the supplementary material) and act as if they were monkeys in shut in the cage of a zoo (behind a chair, or something like this). Another group of children will be visitors of the zoo.

The visitors enjoy watching the monkeys, they try to touch them and talk to them in a loud way. The monkeys try to catch the hand of the visitants when they are between the heavy bars.

Something dangerous can happen: the monkeys can get nervous because of the noises from the children (although these noises usually are kind); they can feel we are bothering them and then become dangerous for us: they can catch our hands, pull our hair or even bite us.

• Do you want to play with the monkeys and look at them?
• How can we do it without bothering them?

Children will propose their own ideas to answer these questions; we can help them though:

• Greet the monkeys without shouting
• Don't put the fingers between the heavy bars
• Don't give them any kind of food, because it can hurt them and give them stomachaches

What do the animals, our friends, like to eat? There are people at the zoos that prepare the breakfast and the lunch for them everyday.

Birds: wheat, corn, sunflower seeds and some fruits. There are also birds like eagles, kites, hawks,... that like hunting small mice, snakes,...
Monkeys: some fresh and dried fruits. 
Elephants: fruits, trees branches and peanuts.
Bears: fish, wild fruits and honey.
Wolves: some kind of meat (rabbits and birds).
Tigers, lions and panthers: pieces of meat.
Giraffes: trees leaves.
…

The teacher prepares a mural in which there are as many boxes as children. In the lower part of each box he/she must draw five compartments (print supplementary material - click to open).

Each child has to bring a picture or drawing of his/her favourite animal. It will be placed in one of the boxes on the mural.

Each day the child will glue one picture or drawing of some food the animal he/she has chosen usually eats, in each one of the compartments.

At the end of the week it has to be checked that everybody had brought the food during the five days and that the food was right for the animals it was given to

We will make a bath for the birds with soup dishes. Then we have to hang them from the trees in a place in which we don't have any problem to refill them.

Each plate will have three holes in the outer part, in order to hang them up, inserting some thin strings through them.

We can also place some feeding-boxes in witch we can leave some seeds and fruit peels for the birds to eat.

Once the feeders and the drinking places are hanging from the trees, we have to observe what the birds do when they approach to them.

Each day there will be one child (or more) responsible for refilling the feeders and the watering holes. Besides, everyday at the same hour, some others can drop some breadcrumbs. In a few days we will check how the birds come at once when they see the children in the playground

The aim of this "excursion" is to observe what kind of animals we can find in the shop and ask the person in charge about the customs the animals have, about what kind of food they eat, how often they have to go to the vet, if they need some vaccines, ...

When we have as much information as possible, we come back to the classroom and talk about what we have seen and listened. Then we will talk over which animal we think the one that could be the pet of the class.

We will organize a collection and the teacher will buy the pet.

P.D.: Just in case you can't go to an animal shop, you must look for someone who is able to give you enough information for the pupils. This person should go to the classroom and talk to the children to explain them all he/she knows about the animals you are interested in.

All the children must cut and colour a butterfly (they can also glue small coloured balls on the drawing). Then they have to make a small hole just in the middle of the butterfly and insert a thin string through it to make the bug fly.

All of us but one will go to the playground and we will run with our butterflies; with this action we will make them fly. The one who is not running will be a hunter; he/she will try to capture the butterflies. If this happens, the boy/girl that was running with the butterfly will say:

I want to be free.
Please, let me fly
and brighten your lives up

The hunter will free the butterfly and the small animal will give him/her a hug. Now both together will go to where the rest of the butterflies are, and the hunter will shake the hand of all of them, saying:

From now on we will be friends and we'll play together.

When the "friendship agreement" is done the butterflies will fly again.

The butterflies can be suspended from the ceiling when the activity is over. They will cheer the classroom and we will enjoy watching them moving with the air

Print the supplementary material: document 1, document 2, document 3, document 4 and document 5.

Now the child has to describe the animal: if it has hair, feathers, scales..., where it lives, what kind of food it eats, ... and the other children have to guess what animal is being described.

When they guess the animal, they all will have to imitate the animal. The person who guessed the animal keeps the card with the picture of the animal he/she has guessed, and takes another one to describe it. When the activity is done, the teacher says:

Now we know plenty of things about these animals, but we have to learn some more; for example, how these animals defend themselves when they are in danger. And we also can learn how we can be careful to avoid the dangerous situations for the animals.

So let's investigate. All of you will take one of these cards and bring them home with you. Then you will ask your family about the animal in the card

We will drop something sweet in the bottle (this will attract the ants) and leave the bottle in the playground, the park or another place in which we can find ants. When we have some ants inside the bottle, we will introduce little by little, some leaves, grass and humid soil in it.

We will be able to observe how the ants built caves, tunnels and paths, or, what is the same, how they build the ant feeder. We will introduce the bottle in the box in order to create the adequate environment.

We can also introduce some earthworms in the bottle; then we will see how they move the soil.

Each child will draw his/her ant feeder and will hang it from the wall of the classroom.

When we have finished observing the ants and what they do, we will return them back to their natural habitat

When we are in the classroom, we will draw different landscapes on a mural: the jungle, the ocean, a farm, ...Children will look for some pictures of animals in some magazines and they will glue them in the appropriate place of the mural.

Then each child has to imitate the movements of the animal he/she has glued on the mural.

When we have talked about the different places in which the animals have to live and the minimum conditions these places have to have, we will talk about the conditions that a snail would need to live. Then we will bring one snail, and we will put it in a box. We will make holes in it and will cover it with a transparent lid. We will also put a lettuce leaf in the box. We will need a new leaf each day, so each child will bring it one day.

We have to observe the signs the snail leaves in the leaf. We will also observe how the snail reacts when we drop some water on it. Finally, we will pay attention to the marks that it leaves on the ground when it moves and how it moves.

When we have finished observing the snail, we will bring it to the place in which it was found.

P.D.: We can also bring another animal to the class instead the snail if we can take care of it and we can find it in an area close to us