Geography · Kindergarten to Grade 3–4

Animal atlas

Put animals on the world map and learn the continents.

The Pet holds up an animal and your child taps the continent where it lives. The animal lands on the world map with one true fact, until six are placed.

Kindergarten to Grade 3–4
10 min
Nothing to prepare
On the screen

Free to sign up.

Is it a good fit?

Ready if Your child knows a few animals by name; the continents come as they play.
Too much today? The Kindergarten level: six animals, one continent tap each, then the two that live together.
Too easy? The Grade 3–4 level: each animal's habitat first (rainforest, desert, tundra), then whether a penguin could live in your country.

What your child practises

Names of the continents
Hot places and cold places
Habitats
Why an animal lives there

Listen for

“The penguin lives on Antarctica, where it is cold.”

If your child says something like this, in their own words, the idea has landed. Finishing the rounds means they took part; this is the learning.

Your part

Nothing to prepare or print
Each question has a Read it to me button
Plays alone; a wrong tap greys the continent and the Pet asks a question instead

Take it off the screen (optional)

Ask at dinner for the one true thing your child remembers, and the continent it came with.

The full design

What it is

Every animal lives somewhere for a reason. The Pet holds up a painted animal, your child taps the continent it belongs on, and the animal lands there with one true thing said about it. Six taps and the world has six animals on it. This is where the continents get their names, and where "why there?" starts: fur for cold, long legs for grass, a beak for fish.

How it goes

The Pet says "the penguin. Where in the world?" and reads it aloud. Your child taps a continent. Right, and the penguin pops onto Antarctica and the Pet says penguins swim faster than it can run. Not right, and that continent goes grey and the Pet asks a question instead ("too warm there for a penguin. Colder?"), never "wrong". An animal that truly lives on two continents lands on either: a moose on Europe is a moose at home. The Pet says the true thing from under the map, so it is on screen the moment the animal lands. Tap any animal on the map and it opens big, with its name; tap a continent when a question is being asked below the map and the Pet names it. Every three days the set of animals changes.

The Pet

Asks: "thick feathers, fat, stands on ice. Hot or cold?" Notices: when the kangaroo lands first time, "you knew the kangaroo!" as the next round opens. Says one true thing for every animal, ten words at K so it is heard whole. Dares (1–2 and 3–4): "bet you can find where the panda really lives, not just the continent."

By band

K: six animals on the map, then "which two live in the same place?" 1–2: twelve, each sorted hot or cold before it is placed, then the pair, then why a hot-country animal your child placed (the lion when it is in the set) stays off the ice. 3–4: six animals with their habitat word first (rainforest, desert, tundra, savanna, ice, bamboo, river), then our cat, which lives anywhere with people, then whether a penguin could live in our country. From 1–2 the Pet dares: where does the panda really live, not just the continent?

What it grows

Continents as shapes come first, climate zones later; the habitat word is the bridge between them. A fact tied to a place is remembered with the place, which is why every animal carries exactly one.

Done, and what counts as evidence

Done = the set placed (six at K, twelve at 1–2, six with their habitat at 3–4). Nothing is written unless you keep the 3–4 habitat sort as an observation. One thing worth saying at dinner: the true thing your child remembers, and the continent it came with.

What's personal

Your country is a small house on the map when it is one of the countries the app knows, from the country you set, not from a stand-in. At 3–4 the penguin question is about your street, and the answer is true wherever you live: in Canada or Britain a penguin has cold sea and fish and still is not there, because penguins stayed in the bottom half of the world; on a coast that has wild penguins, the Pet says so. The family cat goes last, and anywhere you tap is right. Nothing about your family is stored.