Habitat Cards, Magical Zoo Coins and More!
for Rugs alive
Habitat Cards
Instructions:
- Print each of the seven Habitats Cards (be sure to Fit to Page) in either color or black & white on normal copy paper or white matte (uncoated) card stock.
Note: If you have a laminator, feel free to laminate. Be aware of possible glare issues when scanning.
- Cut each Habitat Card out on the dotted
- With your mobile device, launch the Rugs alive™ app and select your rug shape. This will get you into the Scan Mode as if you are viewing through your device’s camera.
- Lay a Habitat Card onto your rug over the letter of an animal that lives in that
- While in the Scan Mode, aim your device’s camera at the Habitat Card and Animal so that they fit into the scan brackets on your screen.
- While aligned, press the Scan button and stay still as it scans. A successful habitat match will place your animal into the Earth Bubble on your screen for placement onto the rug.
- Once your animal is in the Earth Bubble, point your device’s camera at the center of the rug (at the Zoo Crew logo). This will place your animal so you can walk around it, explore, and take pictures!
Note: The Zoo Crew logo has to remain in the camera’s view for the animal to stay in place.
- To play the Zoo Crew Alphabet Song, simply point your device’s camera (while in Scan Mode) at the Zoo Crew logo and press the Scan button.
Magical Zoo Coins
Instructions:
- Print the sheet of Magic Zoo Coins in either color or black & white on card
Note: If you have a laminator, feel free to matte laminate. Be aware of possible glare issues when scanning.
- Cut out each When held in your hand, or placed on a flat surface, the Coin can act as a target for each of the 26 animals.
- With your mobile device, launch the Rugs alive™ app and select your rug This will get you into the Scan Mode as if you are viewing through your device’s camera.
- Lay a Habitat Card onto your rug over the letter of an animal that lives in that
- While in the Scan Mode, aim your device’s camera at the Habitat Card and Animal so that they fit into the scan brackets on your screen.
- While aligned, press the Scan button and stay still as it A successful habitat match will place your animal into the Earth Bubble on your screen for placement onto the rug.
- Once your animal is in the Earth Bubble, point your device’s camera at a Magical Zoo This will place your selected animal onto the Coin so you can explore and take pictures!
Note: The Coin has to remain in the camera’s view for the animal to stay in place.
Activity Ideas for using Rugs alive
1. Magical Zoo Coins The Coins allow students to explore the animals separately from the This gives teachers the freedom to create their own imaginative activities:
- Award a Coin to a student as a behavior reward (Zoo Keeper of the Day)
- Place the animal next to the letter it begins with and taking a picture
- Place the animal next to the food it eats (specific food; or carnivore, herbivore, omnivore)
- Use classroom items or manipulatives, place the animal into ordinal positions: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc
- Place the animal according to positional words using classroom items or furniture: above, under, beside, behind
2. Social/Emotional There are multiple opportunities for developing SEL skills when you pair students or have them work as a team where one has an iPad/tablet and other(s) have the habitat cards. This can teach and reinforce social skills including: collaboration, teamwork, relationship- building, effective communication, giving directions, and following directions. Conflict management, patience, kindness, and self-discipline can also be incorporated. Think creatively to come up with activities for also building: positive relationships, empathy, sharing with others, social engagement, respecting others, identifying and solving problems, etc …
3. English Language Arts (ELA) The rug has all 26 letters along with our 26 zoo crew animals that begin with each of the letters. Students are exposed to the letters every day in the classroom. You can do many activities with Rugs alive for reinforcing letter recognition and letter sounds. During Morning Meeting or Circle Time, have students sit on the beginning letter of their name or assign a specific letter to each student and have them find and sit on that letter. During whole group, centers or any time you have a few minutes for a “game”, have the students stand on the rug (one per letter). You can practice beginning, middle and ending sounds by saying a word and asking the student standing on the beginning, middle or ending sound (whichever you choose) to raise their hand or jump up and down and say the sound. Use your imagination to create all kinds of activities!
4. Math When giving directions for taking photos with animals students can practice positional terms up, down, left, right, in front of, behind, above, below, etc Collect data – make your own data sheet, hand out to
teams and have them use tally marks to compile data for the number of animals that live in each habitat. Then do a whole group activity to create a graph with their data.
5. STEM Science: animals/habitats; Technology: using iPads/Tablets and mobile app, Engineering: coding when matching Habitat Cards with the animals; Math: (see above); Challenge: matching the correct habitat with an animal that lives there so it will come “alive”. Collaboration: working together to get the animal to come alive and taking photos with animals.