I love this website! I have used it in so many ways with the children in my classroom.
This site is created by the New York zoo and aquarium.
The children are able to create themselves or a character by adding wings, different bottoms, feelers etc. At the end their wild self has a name that is reflective of the animal parts they have chosen.
Ideas for use in the classroom.
1. Children can design a character for their story. It is important that children get to practice and refine their skills in this area. Often they are very focused on the story itself, however character development will develop their writing further. (REMEMBER that it is vital that we model this first with the children).
2. Children can print out character and then use adjectives to describe the character (I noted that there was more detail in their stories from this). Also is you are just looking at adjectives this is also a great way to describe things. Can create a anchor chart to display around the room with interesting vocabulary.
3. I have also used this site in our science curriculum. We have developed the character and then looked at what foods it might eat, what habitat would it need to survive etc. What are the animal features and how would they benefit the character.
4. Have you used this site? How have you used it?