Animal Mum Mystery: Mother’s Day Activity

Description
Support your students as they explore the fascinating world of motherhood in the animal kingdom with our engaging and interactive Animal Mum Mystery: Mother’s Day Activity! This cross-curricular task encourages curiosity, critical thinking and descriptive writing while celebrating the unique ways different species care for their young. It’s a perfect follow-up to the heartwarming book Wild About Mums by Philip Bunting or as part of a broader animal-themed unit.
Using a fun “guess who” format, students write clues about different animal mums based on their appearance, behaviour and parenting style - without revealing the animal’s identity. After writing their clues, they illustrate the animal mother in the blank space and hide the drawing behind a flap to maintain the mystery. This activity combines science, literacy and creativity, helping students make meaningful observations while having fun with problem solving.
Animal Mum Mystery is flexible for a range of year levels and includes templates with both 18mm and 14mm line widths. Students can choose animals featured in the book or conduct their own research using provided fact sheets or classroom texts. Whether used as part of your Mother’s Day celebration or during a science unit on animals, this worksheet makes a meaningful and educational addition to your lesson plans.
This resource is part of our Wild About Mums Mini Book Package. Don’t forget to explore our full collection of Mother’s Day resources for even more meaningful ways to celebrate mums and caregivers in your classroom!
Key Learning Outcomes:
- ✅ Practise descriptive writing using factual observations
- ✅ Develop scientific understanding of animal parenting behaviours
- ✅ Engage in problem solving through a “mystery clue” format
- ✅ Use visual and written expression to communicate ideas
- ✅ Connect Mother’s Day themes with cross-curricular outcomes
What’s Included:
- Printable Animal Mum Mystery worksheet in 18mm and 14mm line widths
- Designated sections for clue writing and animal illustrations
Materials Needed:
- Printed worksheets (A4 or enlarged to A3 for younger learners)
- Pencils, coloured markers or crayons
- Glue and scissors for creating flaps to hide the illustrations
- Optional: animal fact sheets or books for research support
How to Use:
- Begin by reading Wild About Mums and discussing the different animal mothers featured in the book.
- Have students choose one or more animal mums to focus on — either from the book or based on their own research.
- Students write a series of factual clues in the lined sections, describing the chosen animal mum without naming her.
- In the blank box, students illustrate the animal and hide the drawing behind a paper flap to keep it a mystery.
- Classmates or family members can later read the clues and guess the animal mum before revealing the picture.
Ideas for Classroom Use:
- 💡 Use during a literacy rotation for descriptive writing practise
- 💡 Pair with science units on animal features, habitats or parenting behaviours
- 💡 Display completed mysteries on a bulletin board for others to solve
Teacher Tips:
- 💛 Provide animal word banks or nonfiction texts to support vocabulary and research
- 💛 Model writing a few example clues together as a class before students begin independently
- 💛 Use the activity as a lead-in to a short research task or writing piece about the animal mum’s parenting style
- 💛 Encourage the use of scientific vocabulary to deepen the connection between literacy and science
- 💛 Turn the finished worksheets into a classroom display titled “Animal Mum Mystery Wall” – be sure to pair it with one of our Mother’s Day banners for an extra special touch
Animal Mum Mystery: Mother’s Day Activity is a meaningful and interactive way to combine literacy, science and celebration – helping your students learn through curiosity, creativity and critical thinking.
Additional information
Number of Pages | 3 |
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File Format | |
Australian Curriculum Code | AC9E1LE02, AC9E1LY02, AC9E1LY05, AC9E2LE02, AC9E2LY02, AC9E2LY05, AC9S1U01 |
Australian Curriculum V9
F - 6
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