Looking for a quick and easy animal study? While it’s very easy to design and put together your own animal study, sometimes it’s nice to have something you can already use.
Welcome to the quicklinks page for the Fur, Fuzz, and Fangs animal study units. These are for you to begin your animal studies. Download the free student worksheet in the study units post and use these quicklinks below to fill them out and put in your own binder or spiralize bind them for a notebook. For the full inexpensive units with additional activities you can visit our shop.
Below are the sections referenced in the the mini-units in order. The websites and videos are the primary information links and the “Books, Items, Other Hands-On Resources” sections are for ideas on crafts or items related to the topic. As with all the links, be sure to peruse them first to see if they are the a good fit for your child. These are by no means the only available resources and feel free to choose what you would like to add or remove from your child’s efforts. Resources articles are geared for middle school to high school reading level.
As a side note: many of these links may mention billions of years or evolutionary terms. It is very difficult to find information about these animals that do not include this theory. Just be aware, while we do not ascribe to this theory, you will encounter it in these links.
The purpose of these mini studies is to briefly touch on each animal and be exposed to the wonderful variety in the world. Some animals are rare and exotic, while some are familiar.
If you run across a great resource for any of these units, please let us know so we can add them for others.
This post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase using links provided. Please see my disclosure page for more details.
Animal Study Quicklinks
Kingdom Animalia
- The Cabinet of Curiosities by Gordon Grice
Peacock Spiders Websites or Videos
- Kids National Geographic for basic facts and a short nature video on Sparklemuffins.
- Peacock Spider Man on Youtube. Various nature camera shorts on the various types of Peacock Spiders.
- Peakockspider.org has a beautiful photo gallery, video archive, and a map location catalogue under the Otto and Hill Publications tab.
- Thoughtco.com has a short fact article with a great picture of the size of peacock spiders.
Peackock Spider Books, Items, Other Hands-On Resources
- Sparklemuffin embroidered patch for your homeschool banner if you are making one for your child.
- Peakock Spiders Photo Book by Aislin Anderson
- A Field Guide to Spiders of Australia by Robert Whyte
Miniature Deer Websites and Videos
- Cool Green Science miniature deer fact article. Includes 6 varieties with pictures.
- New World Encyclopedia article on the deer family. Great for classification, characteristics, and behavior.
- How to Draw a Deer in 8 Steps. Use this for the base drawing of the miniature deer and adjust characteristics for the type chosen.
- Cornell Wildlife Health Lab for ailments, disease, health issues that deer may suffer from.
Miniature Deer Books, Items, Other Hands-On Resources
- 3D DIY Paper Deer Head by Frishta DIY Craft channel. This is a challenging but very cool wall sculpture to make.
- 20 Deer Crafts to have fun doing. Use designs as a base to adjust for the miniature deer characteristics chosen or enjoy making the projects as-is.
- Our Miniature Deer playlist for short video snippets on miniature deer.
- A book about Muntjacs in an English garden by Eileen A. Soper
- Fawn embroidered patch or enamel pin for a homeschool banner if you choose.
Okapi Website Articles and Videos
- Okapi animal highlights and facts by National Geographic
- Democratic Republic of Congo Rainforest video by National Geographic. Short beautiful nature and wildlife information video.
- Curious Creatures by Zoological Society of London. Indiana Jones style short fact video.
Okapi Books, Items, Other Hands-On Resources
- Okapi coloring pages for coloring or for references to trace for Shrinky dinks.
- 3 Simple Leather No-Sew projects by Corter Leather Youtube channel. Flat coasters, keychain fob, or simple pouch.
- 7 Scrap Leather Projects by Daniel Stabile on Youtube for those who have a lot of leather scraps around and don’t want to get a larger piece for the simple pouch.
- Okapi wood cutouts for wood burning details.
- Okapi enamel pin for homeschool banners if you are using one.
- How to Draw an Okapi by hand “follow along”.
- The Okapi: Mysterious Animal of Congo-Zaire by Susan Lyndaker Linsey. An explorer chronicle with line drawings. Also in audio or kindle.
Red Panda Website Articles and Videos
- Smithsonian Magazine for interesting facts for questions on the pdf.
- National Geographic for more facts and a video for questions on the pdf.
- Smithsonian National Zoo for scientific information and family habits with video shorts.
- Red Panda nature videos on the Animal Study playlist for questions.
- The Red Panda Network has a great pdf infosheet with a map of where Red Panda’s live.
Red Panda Resources, Books, Hands-On Ideas
- How to draw a Red Panda article and video
- From Etsy there are numerous options: assemble this adorable felt Red Panda from a kit, 3D paper art, an inexpensive wooden blank cross stitch kit, or felt ornament kit.
- For your homeschool banner there are enamel pin options or embroidered patch options.
- Use the paint-by-number generator to make your own painted picture. You would need to have it printed larger at a print shop.
- The Charm of Red Panda by Mamoud Ali
Tawny Frogmouth Website Articles and Videos
- Bush Heritage Australia– are Tawny Frogmouths really owls?
- Open Library – scroll down to the map of Australia for the specific areas
- Billabong Zoo– video showcasing the Frogmouth
- Your Life Will be Better After you Know About Frogmouths
Tawny Frogmouth Resources, Books, Hands-On Ideas
- Tawny Frogmouth by Gisela Kaplan
- Sample of a simple forest diorama
- How to draw a Tawny Frogmouth
- A great sample to trace and paint or woodburn
- A beautiful example of a lino printed Tawny Frogmouth and a link on how to do basic lino printing.
- A free coloring page from Teachers Pay Teachers
- Ravelry knit patterns for adorable Tawny Frogmouth figures
- Tawny Frogmouth felt kit on Etsy
- Frogmouth enamel pin for your banner
Flower/ Orchid Mantis Website Articles and Videos
- KeepingInsects.com for care and lifecycle of flower mantis
- Map of Malaysia and Indonesia
- Life Cycle of a Flower / Orchid Mantis video (starting at 8:06) by Bugs in Cyberspace. Have patience, the video ends with a great view of hatching babies.
- Orchid Mantis Life Stages by Insect Keeper
- Want to see more videos? Take a look at our playlist
Flower / Orchid Mantis Resources, Books, Hands-On Ideas
- How to draw a flower mantis by Limo Sketch
- Assemble a steampunk mantis sculpture.
- DIY Cricut Orchid Mantis paper pattern for full sized paper sculpture
- Free Canon paper pattern for printing and making a life sized sculpture
- Add an Orchid Mantis sticker to your sheet or animal journal
- Add a Jeweled Flower Mantis specimen to your cabinet of curiosities
- Raise your own Orchid Mantis from USMantis or if you’d rather raise a Praying Mantis from the egg.
- Monster Bug, Season 1 on Amazon Prime
- Orchid Mantises by Andrew Hipp. For younger readers but great pictures or Flower Mantis Book by Painting World!
- Add an Orchid Mantis acrylic pin to your banner.
Kangaroo Rat Website Articles and Videos
- National Park Service for general information
- Deep Look video at close encounters with snakes
- Wildlife Damage Management for general species facts
- Desert Museum on why they have a pouch
- Prairie Conservation for a map of where they live
Kangaroo Rat Resources, Books, Hands-On Ideas
- For further video clips, watch the Kangaroo Rat section of our playlist
- Design a food web of desert animals
- Make a zentangle hexagon art piece and add to your animal hexagon art installation
- Cute paper cut-out printable for a drawn scene
- Giant Kangaroo Rat coloring page
- Draw a Kangaroo Rat for your animal journal
- Crochet a mini Kangaroo Rat from Ravelry
- Easy origami tutorial video
- Kangaroo Rat sticker for your animal banner
- Everyday Adventures of the Kangaroo Rat by Tamara Bay
- Life History of the Kangaroo Rat by Charles Vorhies and Walter Taylor free on Gutenberg
