Family and Homeschool Activities: Migration

These family and homeschool activities are designed to complement the Migration topic page on BrainPOP Jr.

Animal Book

Over the course of one weekend, jot down all of the animals you and your child see together (on TV, in magazines, outside, etc.) Record each animal’s name on its own page in a notebook. Later, you and your children can investigate these animals’ migratory behavior at the library or on the internet. Your children can draw or write about how, why, and where these animals migrate in the natural world, and when they live in your area. When you have researched all of the animals, have your children decorate the cover of the notebook and come up with a title.

Tracking Animals

Armed with a pair of binoculars, take a trip to a local park or forest during peak migration times. You can use the Internet to research which animals are migrating through your area. Whale-watching tours, sea turtle hatcheries, and nature hikes all offer chances to see animals migrating. If this isn’t an option for your family, pick an animal to monitor online. There are many great websites that allow viewers to track an animal’s migration day by day, and to see maps, graphs, and pictures of the migration in progress.

Family Migration

Make a family tree of relatives who have migrated to different places. Discuss how they traveled to the new place. What did they do to prepare? What did they do once when they got there? How long did their migration take? Did they go alone or as part of a group. Why did they migrate, and how was their new climate similar or different to the old one? Have your children compare what they learned about human migration with animal migration.