They’re a great way to start a discussion about each animal’s body type, covering, and how they move as students determine which animals go together.

Getting Ready

To prep the animal puzzles, I just printed the pages, slid them through my laminator and cut out the pieces.

If you have a paper cutter, it’s easiest to chop off the outer edges and then use your scissors to cut through the middle where the puzzles fit together.

Then I paired up the pieces and put matching stickers on the back so students could self-check the answers.

Viola! We were ready to play.

Farm Animal Puzzles

To start, I put the pieces in two stacks: babies and adults.

I had a volunteer pick a card from the baby stack and read the name out loud: lamb.

Before looking through the pile of adult animals to find the pair, I led the class through a few questions to stretch their thinking:

• What color do you think the adult will be?
• How do you think this animal moves?
• How many feet does the animal have?
• What else do you notice?

The discussion was a great way to gather clues about the adult they needed to find.

I had students whisper their guess to their neighbor before inviting a volunteer to come up and grab the matching puzzle piece.

One by one, we worked our way through all 11 matches.

Then, I placed the cards in a basket for students to work on independently during choice time later.

The puzzles were such a fun way to work on scientific observations and learn more about farm animals!

Download Your Copy

Click the blue download button below to grab your copy and then hop over to check out The Plato Pack (our exclusive membership club for Pre-K, Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers) that helps you save time, stay inspired and give EVERY student bigger results.

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