Yellow rump warbler visits always make me smile!

Animals receive their names for a variety of reasons and the following book explains what names tell us about an animal. How many animals could you add to their lists? I immediately thought of bluebird and red-eared slider. Click here for the Safeshare link.

For a fun follow-up, ask your children to create an animal and give it a name. Will it be named after a physical trait, how it moves, where it lives, the sound it makes, or the food it eats? Or present a photo or a video of an unfamiliar animal and brainstorm names for it.

Some animal names are actually incorrect, like starfish and jellyfish. Neither are fish at all! Can you think of any others? Children will enjoy this humorous story! Click here for the Safeshare link.

If you want to continue with this theme, ask children or other family members why they were given their names. I have found many children do not know. Interview grandparents to discover why they named their parents as they did. Search for the meaning and origin of a name on a website or in resource books. Do all cultures follow the same naming traditions? This is an interesting study.

Chrysanthemum is a fun story about names. Click here.