Make sure students have enough space to move around as they pretend to be different animals in the forest.

Since there’s so little prep for this activity, we recommend you also do one of the activities in the Extensions section. To understand what animals need, it’s important that children have a chance to observe them. You can provide that opportunity by attracting birds with a bird feeder, taking your class on a nature walk or field trip, or having your students observe animals through videos.

As an optional activity, we suggest having your students view a one-minute video of animals at home and then discuss what they noticed.

The video is on the Nature Nuggets site, which offers a combination of videos and activities created by the makers of the documentary film series Nature. Preview it here.

Here are some possible questions for discussion:

• What animals did you see in the video?
• Where do the animals live? How do you know?
• If the animals could talk, what would you ask them?

Make sure students have enough space to move around as they pretend to be different animals.

Since there’s so little prep for this activity, we recommend you plan on doing one of the activities in the Extensions. To understand how animals seek safety, it’s important that children have a chance to observe them. You can provide that opportunity by keeping pet snails, exploring a grassy lawn, going for a nature walk, or watching videos to learn what animals make their homes in a hole in a tree.

As an optional activity, we suggest you go on a nature walk. It doesn't have to be far from your classroom or home. You can find animal homes in a playground, a grassy lawn, a city park, or a small yard. Look for ant hills, spiderwebs, birds in the trees, and insects in the grass. We suggest bringing a notebook so that you can make a list of the animals that everyone sees.