# Who Lost His Tail? Animal Tail Matching Game
> Kids color printed animal outlines, an adult cuts the tails off, and then kids play matching rounds on a corkboard: tails to heads, name tags to animals, and bodies to tails. Afterwards, mix the heads and tails into silly new creatures.
- URL: https://www.funlittles.com/pin-the-tail-on-the-animal/
- Ages: 3–6 yrs · Difficulty: easy · Mess: low
- Time: prep 25 min, activity 20 min
- Works for: one-on-one, small group · one batch serves about 1 kids
- Skills: critical-thinking, observation, animal-parts, spelling, word-building, reading, phonics, front-and-back, fine-motor, gross-motor, imagination

## Materials (one batch)
- 12 sheet Printed animal outline templates (one animal per sheet) (household)
- Markers
- 12 piece Paper strips for name tags
- 1 piece Scissors (household)
- 1 piece Cork bulletin board
- Board pins (push pins)

## Safety
- Board pins are sharp and are a choking hazard. The author advises keeping them at a safe distance from a younger sibling or baby.
- An adult should handle the pins and supervise closely while kids pin pieces to the board.
- An adult does the cutting with scissors.

## Before you start
- Print the animal outline templates, one animal per sheet.
- Write a name tag for each animal on a paper strip.

## Steps
1. Color the printed animals with markers. Mix the colors to make your animals as colorful as you like.
2. Adult: write a name tag for each animal.
3. Adult: cut each animal figure, separating the tail from the body.
4. Sort the pieces into two piles, Heads and Tails.
5. Set up the name tags and the board pins, keeping the pins away from little ones.
6. Round 1: the adult pins the heads on the board. Find the matching tail for each animal, then find its name tag.
7. Round 2: the adult pins the name tags. Find both parts of each animal.
8. Round 3: the adult pins the tails. Find the matching body and name the animal.
9. Mix up the heads and tails to make new creatures, then give them silly names.

## Tips
- Let the kids color the animal templates themselves. It keeps them interested and involved in the project.
- It looks and sounds very simple, but it's quite a mental workout for a preschooler.
- We did not do all the rounds on the same day.
- Start with our 'Ask Questions' segment: Why do animals have tails? Why do they need them? Why do they look so different?
- Talk about tail facts. Fish use their tails to swim. Cows and horses brush away biting insects. Dogs wag to show if they're happy, sad or stressed. Kangaroos, porcupines and alligators use their tails for defense. Cats and squirrels use theirs for balance. Monkeys grab and climb with theirs. Lizards and geckos can even grow their tails back!
- I told Big S she could use the new Mix 'em markers to make different colors. Little did I know it would translate as 'Make your animals colorful'!

## The original post by TurkeyMom (2012)

Kids are very observant and it shows when they talk to you about things they have seen or heard or even correct your sentences for you! So how keen is their observation when it comes to animals and their tails ?? Let's find out. Inspired by the classic game of “ Pin the tail on the donkey", I decided to take it up a notch . Let's do it with different animals.

TAILS : What's so interesting about them? They are all so different, some are long, some short, some bushy, some straight , some curvy and some straight !

It's time for our ***“Ask Questions”*** segment:

1. Why do animals have tails?
2. Why do animals need tails?
3. Why do they look so different?

The goal was simple, to see if Big S can find the matching tail for the animal. It looks and sounds very simple but it's quite a mental workout for a preschooler. To keep things interesting for her and to keep her involved in the project I started by letting her color the animal templates we printed. Now you may wonder why the animals are so colorful and here's my story –

Big S wanted to color with her dear daddy and I told her – “You can use the new Mix ‘em markers and make different colors” .Little did I know that it would translate as “ Make your animals colorful” . Both daddy and daughter had fun making colorful animals , anything for fun right?

1. Write the name tags for the animals
2. Cut the animal figure template , separating the tail from the body
3. Arrange into 2 piles – “Heads” & “Tails”
4. Set up the name tags and the board pins

Now if there's a younger sibling, you might want to make sure that the board pins are at a safe distance from the baby's reach.   

### ROUND 1

I pinned the heads on the board

**Big S’s task** – Find the matching tail for the animal and also find the name tag.



### 

###

### ROUND 2

I pinned the Name tag

**Big S’s task** – Find the animal parts.

 

### **ROUND 3**

I pinned the tail

**Big S’s task** – Find the body and identify the animal





*Can you think of a few ways to expand the game and learning – jumble the letters on the name tag and ask them to fish for the letters.* Once the game and learning was done, the real fun had just begun - mixing the heads and their tails to make new creatures ! We even named a few hybrid species – **Camouse (cat + mouse) , Okey (otter + turkey), Dotter (dog + otter), and Ponkey ( pig + monkey)** ! 

- Animals and their parts – Hind legs, fore legs and Tails
- Spellings
- Word building
- Reading skills
- Phonics
- Concept of – Front and Back, Before and After
- Fine motor skills
- Gross Motor Skills

### **TAIL FACTS**

Different animals use their tails for different purposes

- Fish- Swim
- Cows, horses – Brush away insects that bite them .
- Dogs – Communicate – they wag to tell you if they are happy, sad or stressed
- Kangaroos, Porcupines, Alligator – Defense
- Cat, squrriel – Balance
- Monkeys – Grab and Climb

Did you know that some animals can grow their tails again if it breaks off – Lizards and Geckos can. Please note that we did not do all the "rounds" on the same day.

Thanks for reading

Happy Sharing

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