Sequence of activities: 

Intro & reading (15 minutes) 
Talk about & imagine animals (15 minutes) 
Move like an animal (10 minutes) 
Draw animals (5-10 minutes/remainder of class) 

Introduce ourselves by saying our names and an animal we really like today. 
Read “Heads & Tails: Underwater” by John Canty (or any book of your choosing about animals). “Heads & Tails” gives clues about each animal before revealing, so it becomes interactive with the kids yelling out which animal they think is being described. 

Discussion: 
Have they seen any of the animals mentioned in the book? What other animals have they seen (in Tucson, on vacation, in the zoo)? 

Pick one animal that was brought up. Everyone closes their eyes and we are going to pretend we are that animal. Set the scene. If we are ants: we are shrinking, shrinking, shrinking, and when we open our eyes, everything is HUGE! If we are sharks: our arms are turning into fins and our legs are fusing together into a tail, the air around us is becoming liquid… 

What do we see as this animal? What do we hear? Where are we going? What do we like to do with our friends? 

Movement: 
One student picks an animal and shows us how that animal moves. Then we all crawl/hop/slide/swim around the classroom as that animal would. Pick another student and another animal. Do this until we are tired out. Grab a drink of water at the end. 

Drawing:
If there is still time, they can wind down by drawing their favorite animal from the day. 

Each section can take as much or as little time as the students want. I switched to moving when they started getting antsy from sitting and talking. I switched to drawing when they got too riled up from running around and there were still a few minutes left.