Friend of Animals Honor

Nature Study

Requirements

1. Care for a pet animal or bird for at least four weeks.

   Answer: With the help of an adult: 1) Choose a little animal or bird at your home to care for. 2) Every day give it food and clean water. 3) Keep its house or cage clean. 4) Give it love and play with it. 5) Do this for 4 weeks and write down in a little notebook what you did each day. — Caring for a little animal every day teaches love, kindness, and responsibility.

2. Care for animals or birds that live freely in the surroundings of your home, school, or church.

   Answer: With an adult: 1) Watch the little birds and animals that live free near you. 2) Leave a little dish with clean water and a bit of food (like seeds for the birds). 3) Don't make noise or scare the animals. 4) Make sure the place stays clean, with no trash that could hurt the little animals. — Animals that live free also need care and respect from us.

3. Identify and depict the animals you care for, through drawing or painting.

   Answer: With an adult: 1) Think about the animals you cared for. 2) Get paper, colored pencils, or paint. 3) Draw or paint each little animal. 4) Write the name of each one next to the drawing. 5) Show it to your family or to your club. — Drawing the animals helps you observe better and remember the ones you cared for.

4. Build a game about animals, their homes, their mates, their young, etc.

   Answer: With an adult: 1) Choose a little game, like a memory game. 2) On pairs of cards, draw the animal and its home (the bee and the beehive), or the parent and the baby (the hen and the chick). 3) Cut out the cards. 4) Play with the family or the club, trying to find the right pairs. — Making a game teaches, through play, about the animals' homes and their babies.

5. Make a mask of an animal.

   Answer: With an adult: 1) Choose your favorite animal. 2) Get cardstock or a paper plate. 3) Draw and color the animal's little face. 4) Cut out the holes for the eyes. 5) Attach an elastic band or a stick to hold it. 6) Put on the mask and imitate the animal! — Making and wearing the mask is a fun way to get to know the animal better.

6. Make a stuffed animal or something similar, with stuffing, give it a name and a birth certificate.

   Answer: With an adult: 1) Use scraps of fabric, an old sock, or paper to make the little animal's body. 2) Fill it with cotton, scraps, or soft stuffing. 3) Sew or glue it shut. 4) Give it a really nice name. 5) Make a birth certificate on a piece of paper with the name, today's date, and a drawing of the little animal. — Creating and naming the little animal awakens love and care, as if it were a real animal.

7. Visit a park or animal shelter where you can have contact with them, especially direct contact. Choose one of the animals and tell its story (made up) and how it ended up in the place where you visited it.

   Answer: With an adult: 1) Visit a park, zoo, little farm, or animal shelter. 2) Watch the animals up close and, if you can, touch them carefully. 3) Choose your favorite animal. 4) Make up a little story telling where it came from and how it got there. 5) Tell the story to your family or to the club. — Seeing the animals up close and creating a story helps you love and respect nature.