What Does the Animal Say?

Materials You Need: A book or books with pictures of different animals; pictures from magazines, advertisements, etc. with animal pictures; real animals if you have pets or live on or near a farm.

What You Can Do Together: With your child, enjoy trying to make the different sounds that animals make.  You can look at a picture of an animal, or a real animal, and ask your child “What does that animal (e.g. cat) say?”  You can make the sound first, or your child may know the sound and make it.  You can talk turns also: “I’ll make the sound of a ___.  Now you make the sound!”  Pictures will help your child connect the animal with the sound.    To make it a bit more challenging, you could first make an animal sound and then show your child pictures of more than one animal and ask: “Which animal makes that sound (for example, Moooo)?”

What Your Child is Learning:  He or she is beginning to connect real things (animals) with their sounds.  Your child is also making connections between pictures of things and the actual things they represent (here, pictures of animals and animals).  All of this supports your child’s development of thinking, language, and early literacy skills.