OK, so this may be the grossest post I’ve ever posted. But poop is a reality of life for us and and the rest of the animal kingdom. And kids have questions, so here goes… Welcome to the Animal Poop Lesson Plan.
Let’s Talk About the Science of Poop
Really? Yes really… Every animal poops, so might as well understand it! Kids LOVE talking about it, too.
Animal droppings come in all shapes and sizes! The shape and size is dependent upon their diet and the size of the organs in their digestive track. Here are a few that you can mimic with the no-bake cookies (use the cards below to identify your finished cookies):
- Bears are omnivores, meaning they eat both meat and plants. Their scat often has remnants of berries and seeds that they like to eat.
- Deer scat is shaped like small pellets due to the size of the opening of their colon.
- Wombat poop is shaped like a cube! This is likely due to the dry environments that they live in. No moisture is left in their feces.
- Cougars, cats, dogs, fox, and wolves have tubular scat that may have remnants of their diet in it like hair or bones.
I’ve included this and a bunch of other cool facts about animal scat in our FREE lesson plan.
FREE Animal Poop Lesson Plan
How to Make No-Bake Poop Cookies
To help illustrate all this learning, let’s make some cookies! I promise you they’re much more delicious than they look and super easy to make. Simply melt the butter, stir in sugar, peanut butter, cocoa, oats and a few more simple ingredients and you have the base for animal poop. Then shape to match what you’ve learned, and you’re done! Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
Books About Animal Poop
So you don’t have to do this conversation all on your own. There’s a bunch of great books out there that make this poop talk fun.
Here’s a list of some of my favorites as well as sneak peeks inside. You can see all the books HERE on Amazon.
- Poop: A Natural History of the Unmentionable by Nicola Davies
- Jurassic Poop: What Dinosaurs and Others Left Behind by Jacob Berkowitz
I’ve added even more books into the lesson plan, so be sure to grab that free printable!
FREE Animal Poop Lesson Plan
More Animal Activities for Kids
You and the kids will love exploring the Animal Kingdom with STEAM Explorers! You’ll find hands-on art and engineering projects like animal bots, animal track painting, and more. Delicious recipes that teach about science what you snack. Printables perfect for home or school that get kids thinking about what makes animals special. Pages to read that help kids understand how animals survive in their world and get inspired by STEM careers that work with animals. And as always, lots of fun stuff like color by coding, word searches, seek and finds, and more.
And for the first time, you can grab an awesome STEAM Explorers book in either digital or print format!
No-Bake Poop Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- Dash of salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 3 cups oats
Add-ins for scat:
- Dried cranberries blueberries, etc.
- Dried coconut flakes.
- Peanuts slivered almonds, etc.
Instructions
- In medium sauce pan melt butter. Add in milk, cocoa powder, sugar, and dash of salt. Bring to a rolling boil and let boil for 4 minutes. This is necessary for them to set up later.
- Remove from heat and add vanilla and peanut butter. Pour over oats and mix well. Wait until it is cool enough to handle, but still warm.
- Spray hands with cooking spray or coat in butter.
- Shape into poop shapes and place on wax paper. Add nuts, dried berries, and coconut as desired.
- Let cool before eating and store in an air-tight container for up to 3 days.