> Letter R > R
is for Raccoon or Vowel team sound (oo)
theme picture books
Education > Rusty
the Respectful Raccoon
Crafts > Raccoon
Online jigsaw puzzles
Age group: Older toddlers to early
The raccoon is a mischievous nocturnal mammal. It is intelligent, a great
swimmer, and can be an urban pest too! Let's learn some more.
Young children will have fun making an easy and fun craft of a raccoon
and during the process many skills
and educational themes can be addressed. Other printable support materials and links to related
activities are provided. Let's get started.
Activity: Science & Social Studies > Raccoon
* Define and understand the terms:
- mammal: a
class of warm-blooded animals that have, in the female, milk-secreting
organs for feeding the young. The class includes human beings,
apes, many four-legged animals, whales, dolphins, and bats.
- raccoon (can also be spelled racoon): a
small mammal native to the forests of North and Central America that
has grayish black fur, black patches around the eyes that looks like a
mask, and a long bushy
ringed tail. More information and images to visit below.
Social Studies objectives:
* Understand that people need to respect animals and plant life,
natural resources and their habitats.
* Identify ways people help protect these living things so that they
are not endangered or become extinct.
Review the external resources and suggested children's picture books
below to prepare and expand on the objectives:
Where to start?
Ask children what they know about the raccoon, or if they have seen
pictures or read stories that have a raccoon character. Ask
children if they know other animals that live in the forest or their
local park and backyard. Keep notes
of their responses.
Common raccoon basic facts:
* Raccoons are mammals.
* Where does it live? Lives in woodland forests or urban
* What does it eat? The raccoon is not a picky eater. It
can eat just about everything. It has very agile hands to pick
up food and are super climbers. It eats berries, acorns, honey,
eggs, worms, grasshoppers, and other bigger animals like chicken.
In towns and cities they eat garbage.
* The raccoon is generally nocturnal - active at night
* Raccoons can spread diseases, such as rabies - be careful and never
touch a raccoon.
* A young raccoon is called a kit. Kits are born in tree
holes way up high where they can be safe and dry.
External educational resources for additional
information, fun facts, and wonderful images of the raccoon at
Science & Nature - Wild Facts
Select a printable raccoon craft that is age appropriate. All
you need is a printer, paper or construction paper, glue stick,
scissors and something to color with.
craft assembly conduct some of the learning activities suggested
for the craft which may include:
1. Math: Identifying shapes, colors, counting, sorting
and sizing the craft templates.
Skills developed during craft assembly: Scissor cutting and
coloring (precursors to handwriting), problem solving, fine motor
Before or after completing the craft conduct your choice of suggested
Activity: Language Arts: Alphabet
Letter R or Vowel team sound (oo)
Activity: Children's picture books
- raccoon theme
This is just a sampling of beautifully illustrated books that can help
you present the raccoon and other topics -- your librarian can help you
select many more!
Activity: Character Education > Respect
Read the online story Rusty
Respectful Raccoon, and visit the parent
Atlas, map or world globe to identify geographical location of pandas