# Observing Patterns in the Wild > Kids color small animal skin pattern printables (tiger, giraffe, zebra, jaguar, leopard) while comparing them to real animal photos. They spot the shapes, the colors, and the tricky difference between a jaguar and a leopard. - URL: https://www.funlittles.com/preschooler-pattern-activity/ - Ages: 3–6 yrs · Difficulty: easy · Mess: low - Time: prep 5 min, activity 30 min - Works for: one-on-one, small group, whole class · one batch serves about 1 kids - Skills: observation, patterns, shapes, colors, animal-science, fine-motor, conversation ## Materials (one batch) - 5 piece Animal skin pattern printables (tiger, giraffe, zebra, jaguar, leopard) - 2 sheet Cardstock paper - 1 sheet Printed photos of the animals you are observing - Crayons (orange, yellow, brown and more) - 1 piece Black marker - 1 piece Scissors (household) ## Safety - Use non-toxic, washable markers and crayons, and keep an eye on younger kids who mouth crayons or marker caps. - An adult handles any cutting of the cardstock. ## Before you start - Make animal skin pattern printables for a tiger, giraffe, zebra, jaguar and leopard (the author drew hers in MS Paint). - Print the patterns on cardstock and cut each sheet into 4 small pattern cards. - Print color photos of the same animals to compare with the patterns. ## Steps 1. Show the black-and-white pattern cards and ask which animal each one belongs to. 2. Start with the tiger: compare the pattern to the tiger photo and name the colors, orange skin and black stripes. 3. Color the tiger pattern while you talk about tigers: what they eat and where they live. 4. Giraffe: find the yellow and brown crayons. Color the skin yellow and the spots brown. 5. Zebra: look at the photo. Is it a white body with black stripes or a black body with white stripes? Then color the stripes. 6. Color the jaguar and leopard patterns and look for the black center inside the jaguar's rosettes. 7. Lay all the patterns next to the photos and talk about the shapes (lines, polygons, circles, ovals) and colors you see. ## Tips - If your kid isn't big on coloring, make the patterns very small. I cut one cardstock paper into 4 parts. - Jaguar vs leopard is a tough one for kids, and some adults too! - Hold a conversation while they color. It's amazing the things we hear when we listen to them, their play and their imagination. - Watch for giggles: the zebra pattern made Big A feel 'dizzy', and she was cracking up for a long time. - Keep a collection of animal images handy. I have a Pinterest board just full of them for when we want to talk about animals. ## FAQ **What if my child doesn't have the patience for this much coloring?** Keep the patterns tiny. The author cut one cardstock paper into 4 parts. **How do you tell a jaguar's pattern from a leopard's?** Look inside the rosettes: a jaguar's rosettes have a black center. ## The original post by TurkeyMom (2012) We are back with another fun and educational activity for World Animal Day. This activity will be appropriate for preschoolers and above. Observation – a skill that is very important for future learning. Yet, preschoolers have a tough time focusing on anything. Today, Big A and mom are going to observe animal skin patterns and spot the differences, As mentioned before, Big A loves wildlife. When we want to talk about animals , that’s where we go. - Animal pattern printable ( I made my own) - Markers and crayons - Printable of the animals you are observing I made my own animal skin pattern using regular old MSPAINT. I hand drew the jaguar and leopard pattern - very hard ones. Before starting, I just showed her the printed out black and white images of the animal skin patterns just to see of she had an idea of the animal. She got 4/5 right which was good. The last one jaguar vs leopard is a tough one for kids (and some adults too - I’m looking at you husband) We started with the tiger I printed out the tiger skin pattern printable I made on a cardstock paper. I made a very small pattern because of the lukewarm interest Big A shows towards coloring. If your kid loves to color you could make the pattern on an entire cardstock paper. Once we had my own pattern, we compared that to the printed out picture of the tiger. Big A started pointing out the colors. Skin is orange and the stripes are black. Great! She started to color while holding a conversation with me about tigers :What they eat, where they live and her love for the baby tigers. Her desire to keep a baby tiger as a pet since his teeth might not be that sharp as a mommy tiger. This is one of the reasons I love hands on activities with the kiddo's : to listen to them talk. It’s amazing the things we hear when we listen to them, listen to their play, listen to their imagination. Next animal: Giraffe. We located the colors yellow and brown and she knew the places each color would go. Yellow on the skin and brown on the spots.. Moving on, we described the zebra’s pattern and I had her look if the zebra has a white body with black stripes or the black body with white stripes. She came at me “Mom, I’m feeling dizzy looking at this zebra pattern” and was cracking up for a long time. She kept moving the zebra pattern paper away from eyes and towards her eyes and was being completely silly and goofy for a while. Anyway, the zebra question. Still under discussion all though strong evidence point towards black with white stripes. Then Big A colored the very tiny pieces of jaguar and leopard patterns and we saw the rosettes had a black center on a Jaguar’s coat. All in all, we closely studied the colors and patterns on different animals' skins. I think it is a great exercise for kids as it gets them to take a closer look at something they think they know. - Observed that the skin patterns have various shape on them – lines, polygons, circles and ovals - Observed the differences in colors on the patterns - Observed the crucial difference between a jaguar’s pattern and a leopard’s pattern Observation exercises seemed to be a good hit here. What can I say? She is one weird kid who loves worksheets(except coloring),workbooks and homework! I love it --- Hello Visitor, Thanks for stopping by our little space here. We encourage you to stick around and take a look at [**couple of**](https://www.funlittles.com/paint-with-spaghetti-brooms/) our [**popular posts.**](https://www.funlittles.com/animal-resist-painting/) --- --- If you have a wildlife fan at home, you should check out Penny at Wildlife fun 4 kids. ### Days to World Animal Day World Animal Day