Need educational activity ideas for AK and AKL

[Nik's Mom]

Hi,
We will be leaving for WDW next week. My sons teachers want him to do an independent study to keep up with school work while we are gone. Since he's really into animals, we are staying at AKL. Does anyone have any suggestions for educational activities relating to animals? Are there any good websites where I can print out pictures of the animals, etc? If it helps, my son is in kindergarten special ed ( he's high functioning autistic).
Thanks for your help!

 

[Baloo]

DSErich has always loved to learn about animals. Enchanted Learning is a fantastic site for print out sheets,not just on animals, on about anything you can think of! http://www.allaboutjewels.com/coloring/ Since one section of the AK is Africa there's a really cool one on there with the continent of Africa and the animals that live there.

You might try a scavanger hunt of sorts.Finding animals that start with each letter of the aphabet that live around the Lodge and the Park.

Also at AKL ,not really educational but fun,is a Hidden Mickey list.Ask about it at the front desk.It has clues to help you find the Hidden Mickeys hiding throughout AKL.Sometimes if you're having troubles a nice CM will point you in the right direction!

Have a wonderful trip!!!

 

[Baloo]

Here's a list we have here at the DIS of all the animals from AKL :http://www.wdwinfo.com/aklodge/animals.htm


Here's a list from allearnet of the animals that live at AK:http://allearsnet.com/tp/ak/ak_anim.htm

 

[Nik's Mom]

Thanks!

 

[wide awake]

I think I would buy a sticker book which had stickers of the animals your son is likely to see. Then each day I would have him place the stickers on a page, and write the date and time he saw the animals...that way he has math and science. If he draws pictures of animals that he doesn't have stickers of, and places stars on a map of the countries the animals come from you have art and geography too. For Language Arts you can read to him about the animals and countries and he can answer short comprehension questions, or just listen if his verbal skills aren't that high yet. As an alternative activity, listening to the story hour at the Disney resort would also take care of the Language Art requirement.

 

[leanne11]

they will give you a guide and map, read it...it will tell you all about every animal (what they eat and exactly what they look like)then he can count each day how many zebra's and flamingo's and keep a daily list of what he saw, also on the back they give all the children activities he can do, very educational and fun,you should try them all,even if he just does the cookie decorating,(BOMA) take a picture and put it in a scrapbook,i found some great pages for a disney vacation daily book...here...at the top of the page. he can print it all out, from the aiplane ride to the last day..i'm gonna have my kinder. do it at the end of everyday....

 

[Zoesmama03]

I think the sticker idea is a very great idea. Multiple stickers of each animal will be great since then he can report how man of each animal he has seen that day.

 

[bobcat]

AK also has a booklet you can pick up and then you stop at all the stations around the park and do the activities. It is free and you can do as many activities as you want. These activities deal with sensory experiences, what does it look like if you are a bug, feeling different textures, etc. Depending on your sons sensitivity these may or may not be good for him, but always an option.

 

[Nik's Mom]

AK also has a booklet you can pick up and then you stop at all the stations around the park and do the activities. It is free and you can do as many activities as you want. These activities deal with sensory experiences, what does it look like if you are a bug, feeling different textures, etc. Depending on your sons sensitivity these may or may not be good for him, but always an option.

I didn't know about that booklet. I will definitely give that a try, as well as the sticker idea!
Thanks, everyone!

 

[kparc]

Here in Virigina we study about Kenya as part of Kindergarten Curriculum. We just did a pretend safari last week and graphed the animals we saw using a simple bar graph. ( I imagine this would be even more fun with real animals.) You can then take that information and make a simple book about what he saw that he can illustrate.

 

[D L and K's Mom]

of "Kids Trip Activities to Print" on the Disney For Families Page.....its the third or fourth post down. When you hit it you will find some great activities for you son. There is a journal...some of the pages are for Animal Kingdom. There is also a section on the right hand side of the page that lists "Homework Activities" they have letters, mazes etc. This may be fun for your son. have a great trip!!!!!

 

[princessesrule4]

AK has the Family Fun Kid Stations. There are 6 or so stations around the park where kids participate in an activity and are given a stamp in their booklet for each activity they complete. We picked up our booklet at one of the stations. (There are puzzles, games etc. in the booklet also that they can work while waiting in the lines!) My kids completed the station where you put dinosaur "bones" together like a 3-d puzzle and one where you have to figure out what kind of animal left a pawprint based on clues given by a CM. My kids were so bummed that most of the stations had closed since we came in the afternoon. I think they close at 5 o'clock. Have a great trip!