Taught through Gary, Rosie, Marvin and the hoglets
Ages 3–5 · Adult-led activities, continuous provision ideas and observation prompts
How this section works
EYFS is not lessons, so this is not written as lessons.
Each activity below gives you: what you need, what to do, what to say, and what to look for. The "what to look for" lines are written so they can go straight into an observation record.
None of it needs a live animal. Everything works with photographs, films from the animal cams, and objects you can find.
Nothing here is timed, scored or recorded against a child.
Areas of learning covered
- Communication and Language — activities 1, 3, 6
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development — activities 2, 7
- Physical Development — activities 4, 5
- Literacy — activities 3, 6
- Mathematics — activity 5
- Understanding the World — activities 1, 2, 4, 7
- Expressive Arts and Design — activities 4, 8
Activity 1 — Who lives here?
Area: Understanding the World · Communication and Language
You need: photographs of four animals — a hedgehog, a bird, a tortoise, a frog
What to do
Show one animal at a time. Give it a name. Let the children look for as long as they want before you say anything.
Then ask, one at a time:
- What can you see?
- What do you think it feels like?
- Where do you think it sleeps?
There are no wrong answers. A child who says a tortoise sleeps in a bed is doing exactly the right thinking — they are using what they know to guess what they do not.
What to say
"This is Gary. He is a hedgehog. He has spines on his back."
"What do you notice about him?"
"You thought he'd be soft. Shall we find out?"
What to look for
- Uses new vocabulary — spines, shell, feathers, beak
- Offers an idea without being asked
- Listens to another child's idea and adds to it
- Asks a question of their own
Make it easier: one animal only, and just "what can you see?"
Make it harder: two animals side by side. "What is the same? What is different?"
Activity 2 — Gentle hands
Area: PSED · Understanding the World
You need: a soft toy animal, or a real animal if you have one and it is appropriate
What to do
This is about how we behave near an animal, and it is the most important thing in this whole section.
Practise together:
- Quiet voices. Loud noises frighten animals.
- Slow hands. Sudden movements frighten them too.
- One finger, gently. Not grabbing, not squeezing.
- Let them come to you. We do not chase.
- Leave them alone when they want to be left alone.
Have every child practise on the soft toy first. Every single time, before any real animal.
What to say
"Show me your gentle hands."
"Gary is asleep. What should we do?"
"He's walked away. That means he's had enough. What do we do now?"
What to look for
- Adjusts their own voice without being reminded
- Uses one finger rather than a whole hand
- Notices when an animal moves away and responds
- Reminds another child to be gentle
A note: "leave it alone" is the hardest one and the most valuable. Praise it more loudly than the others.
Activity 3 — Animal sounds and first sounds
Area: Communication and Language · Literacy
You need: animal pictures, and the animal cams if you have a screen
What to do
Say the animal's name slowly, stretching the first sound.
"Ggggg— Gary. Gary starts with g."
"Rrrrr— Rosie. Rosie starts with r."
"Mmmmm— Marvin."
Then play a sorting game: which animals start with the same sound as your name?
What to say
"Listen. Mmmm-arvin. Can you hear the m at the beginning?"
"What else starts with m?"
What to look for
- Hears and repeats an initial sound
- Suggests another word with the same initial sound
- Joins in with a repeated phrase
- Recognises their own name's first sound
Make it easier: just two animals, with very different sounds.
Make it harder: last sounds as well as first ones.
Activity 4 — Move like an animal
Area: Physical Development · Understanding the World · Expressive Arts
You need: space
What to do
Watch a short film of each animal moving, then move like it.
- Tortoise — very slow, low to the ground, heavy
- Hedgehog — quick little steps, then curl up into a ball
- Bird — big arm wings, then perch on one spot
- Frog — crouch and jump
- Stick insect — sway gently, like a branch in the wind
The stick insect one is the best. Children discover they have to stay still and only sway, which is much harder than running about.
What to say
"Marvin is very slow. Can you go that slowly?"
"Now curl up small like Gary when he's frightened."
"The stick insect is pretending to be a stick. Can you?"
What to look for
- Controls speed — moves slowly on purpose
- Curls, stretches, crouches and jumps with control
- Holds a still position
- Copies a movement they have watched
Activity 5 — Counting the mealworms
Area: Mathematics · Physical Development
You need: small objects — pasta, buttons, counters — and two bowls
What to do
The objects are pretending to be mealworms. Gary's dinner.
- Count them into the bowl, one at a time, out loud.
- "Gary ate two. How many are left?"
- Put the same number in each of two bowls — one for Gary and one for his friend. That is sharing.
- Which bowl has more? Which has fewer?
Picking up small objects one at a time is fine motor practice as well as counting.
What to say
"Let's count them in. One… two… three…"
"How many altogether?"
"Gary and his friend both want some. Can you share them?"
What to look for
- Counts objects one at a time, touching each once
- Says how many are there without recounting
- Uses more, fewer, the same
- Shares a set into two equal groups
- Uses a pincer grip to pick up small objects
Activity 6 — What happens next?
Area: Communication and Language · Literacy
You need: the hoglet films, or four pictures of a hoglet growing
What to do
Put the pictures in order together: newborn, eyes open, exploring, grown up.
Talk about what changed at each stage. Use first, then, next, after that.
What to say
"This one is the tiniest. Which comes first?"
"What has changed? His eyes have opened!"
"First he was tiny. Then what happened?"
What to look for
- Sequences pictures correctly
- Uses time words — first, then, next
- Describes a change rather than just naming what is there
- Retells the sequence in their own words
Make it easier: two pictures — smallest and biggest.
Make it harder: four pictures and ask the child to tell the whole story unprompted.
Activity 7 — How are you feeling today?
Area: PSED
You need: animal pictures showing different states — resting, alert, hiding, active
What to do
Look at an animal and wonder aloud about how it might be feeling. Then link it gently back to the child.
"Marvin is hiding in his shell. Why do you think he might do that?"
"Sometimes I want to hide too. Do you ever feel like that?"
Talking about an animal's feelings is much easier than talking about your own, which is exactly why it works.
What to say
"He's gone somewhere quiet. What do you think he wants?"
"What helps you when you feel like that?"
What to look for
- Names a feeling — happy, scared, tired, cross
- Suggests a reason for a feeling
- Connects it to their own experience
- Suggests something that would help
A note: follow the child's lead and stop where they stop. If a child does not want to talk about themselves, staying with the animal is a completely successful outcome.
Activity 8 — Making a home
Area: Expressive Arts and Design · Understanding the World
You need: boxes, fabric, paper, leaves, whatever you have
What to do
Make a home for one animal. Before building, ask what it needs.
- Where will it sleep?
- Where does its food go?
- Where can it hide?
- Is it warm enough?
The four things from the KS1 lesson — food, water, air, a safe home — are the same four here, just built rather than listed.
What to say
"Where will Gary hide? He likes to burrow."
"Rosie is a bird. Does she want to be up high or down low?"
"What would he drink from?"
What to look for
- Chooses materials for a reason
- Explains a choice
- Solves a problem when something does not work
- Includes food, water and a hiding place without being told
Continuous provision
Things to leave out for children to return to on their own:
- Small world — animal figures, fabric, boxes, natural materials
- Book corner — non-fiction animal books alongside stories
- Mark making — animal pictures to draw and label
- Sand or soil tray — with digging tools and hidden objects, for burrowing
- Sensory — a basket of textures: soft, spiky, smooth, rough
- Screen corner, if you have one — the animal cams on quietly, with cushions
The cams are worth their space. A child who will not sit for a story will often sit and watch a reef.
Notes for the adult
Curriculum: EYFS framework — all seven areas of learning, mapped per activity above. The observation prompts are written to drop into a learning journal without rewriting.
Why the format changed. Everything else in this file is a lesson a learner can read. EYFS is adult-led activity and continuous provision, so writing it as lessons would have produced something that looked complete and was unusable. The content is the same; the container is not.
Activity 2 comes before any real animal. Every time, including with children who have done it before. It is a welfare requirement as much as a teaching one.
No live animal is needed. Everything works with photographs and film. If you do have an animal present, the setting's own risk assessment and hygiene procedures apply, and they take priority over anything written here.
Access: read-aloud, dyslexia-friendly font, enlarged text, high contrast and calm mode. Every activity has a spoken route, and none require a child to read or write.
No timing, no scoring, no attendance tracking. Observation prompts describe what a child did, not what they failed to do.
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