Who Eats Colors?

Activity Overview

Sorting tasks help students learn to identify characteristics of objects and build associations within groupings. The work to develop these connections requires visual perception, memory skills, and reasoning. All of these are paramount to problem solving abilities that continue to evolve through later stages of development. In this activity, students will compare themselves and their preferences with habits of other important members of our community – animals!

What You Need

• Sorting Mats printed (optional: laminate or place in plastic protective sleeve for extended use over the course of the week)

• Who Eats Orange? read aloud video

• Animal figurines

• Play food

• Pantry items

• Optional: scissors and markers to write and draw your own food cards

Steps

1. Follow along with the read aloud Who Eats Orange? and discuss the animals and the food they eat.

2. Print out the sorting mats and place them in a row. Select some animal figurines, or stuffed animals, and place one above the mat that says “Foods ___ animal eats.”

3. Cut out and use the blank “food” cards included or use play food and real food from your pantry or refrigerator. Pick one, and then ask, “Do you eat this? Does the animal eat this? Do you both eat this?” Then, sort the food into the correct category. After you have a pile of a few foods in each category, examine and compare them. What do the foods in each category have in common? What is different? What do they mean about your diet as it compares with the animal’s diet?

4. Continue with different food groups (vegetables, breakfast foods, desserts, grains) or animals from different regions or climates (farm animals, ocean animals, rainforest animals). Use the guiding questions to structure conversation as you go.

Guiding Questions

• What’s your favorite way to eat this food (for example, rice can be in so many different dishes: stir fry, risotto, as part of soup, in sushi)

• Would you and a ___ eat this food in the same way? How would an ___l eat it?

• How would a ___ search for this food?

• Are there any times when this animal would not be able to get this food? (for example, a bird may typically eat certain seeds, but they may be more scarce in winter)

Extensions

• Role play an animal searching for food, eating, and feeding its babies. Include sounds, movements, or stuffed animals if preferred.

• Try the Seed Stats activity and think about how many animals you may know that also eat each type of seed.

• Pick one food and use it to cook your favorite recipe! Would any animals like the food the way you cooked it?

• If developmentally appropriate for your student, set up two hula hoops, or use tape to create a Venn Diagram. Designate one section as “Food I eat,” the other side as “Food ___ Animal eats,” and the overlapping section in the middle as “Food we both eat.” Sort using the circle sections as categories and discuss that the overlap means it fits into both circles.

• If developmentally appropriate, use tally marks to track how many foods have been sorted into each category (you may record right on the sorting mat with a pencil or, if laminated or in a plastic sleeve, with a dry erase marker).