Carnivore and Herbivore Sorting

Preschool Elementary Kindergarten PrintablesScience

When it comes to preschool and kindergarten theme units, I have yet to find one that is more popular than dinosaurs.

I’m not sure exactly what it is about those prehistoric creatures that young children love so much, but they’re definitely fascinated by them.

Fortunately, it’s really easy to create a unit study filled with dinosaur-themed activities that are not only educational, but that your preschooler or kindergartner is going to love!

This carnivore and herbivore sorting activity, for instance, is a fun and easy way to work a little science into your child’s day as it allows them to explore the diets of the dinosaurs they love so much.

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Dinosaur Diets

Putting this activity together is super easy and takes just a few short minutes.

To start, you’ll need to print all of the pieces.

You’ll wind up with 2 separate sorting mats (one for carnivores and one for herbivores) and 12 individual food cards.

The food cards include:

• ham
• fish
• steak
• chicken
• hamburger
• sausage
• lettuce
• peas
• radishes
• carrots
• broccoli
• green beans

Once you have all of these cut out, run them through your laminator for durability.

Finally, add Velcro dots to the backs of each of the food cards and the opposite Velcro dots to the sorting mats.  Each sorting mat will need six.

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When the mats are ready, set them out in your science center and explain to your students that carnivores are meat eating animals while herbivores are animals (or dinosaurs) that survive by eating plants and plant material such as algae.

Ask them to give you an example or two of something that a carnivore would eat and then try asking for examples of foods that would fit into an herbivores diet.

Showing your children pictures of both dinosaurs and currently living animals that fit into these types of diets can also help them make a real connection between the prehistoric creatures and the animals living among them today.