Meow! A Cat Unit Study

One thing my kids love to learn about is animals: specifically cats and dogs. This summer we are doing some fun unit studies on topics of their choice, so of course cats was one of the topics!

Here are some of the things we enjoyed for the week:

Reading

We gathered a bunch of books from the library - all about cats! It was fun to find a nice selection of fiction, nonfiction, and comics for the kids to enjoy:

• My Book of Cats and Kittens

• Cats You Can Draw

• The Cat’s Meow

• The Hidden Language of Cats

• Yokai Cats

• A Kid’s Guide to Cats

• Cat’s Cradle

Activities

• Paint wooden pet figures

• Paint by number animal pictures

• Observe our cats’ behavior

• Cat treat taste test (by the cats!)

• Play “You Gotta Be Kitten Me!” Card Game

• Watch the movie Aristocats

• Drawing cats (using book listed above)

• Make a 3D cat pop-up card

The Benefits

Besides having fun (which we did!), the kids learned a lot about animal behavior, drawing, art techniques, and more. Plus, they became more comfortable reading nonfiction, which can be difficult for some kids to embrace. They loved surprising me with some “Did you know….” facts about cats! They did not want to return the cat books to the library, which I think is a great sign that they are enjoying learning more on their own as well.