Do you have a yearning to learn more about this rare, unique and amazing mammal? Well, here are all the resources, links, etc that we used to learn about this Australian animal!!

The lapbook:

• Platypus Animal Study and Lapbook by Homeschool Share. Really the only one out there and very helpful.

Books:

• Platypuses by Sara Louise Kras
• Electric Animals by Natalie Lunis (this has a two page piece on the platypus’ ability to use electroreceptors to find food)
• Platypus by Chris Riddell (a story book not a non fiction book)
• A Platypus, Probably by Sneed B. Collard III
• Platypus, A Century-long Mystery by William Caper

Crafty Bits:

• Make your own Platypus on Learn Create Love by using their instructions HERE. We put our legs on with brads and went without the googly eyes.
• Make your own Platypus paperbag puppet using instructions by Danielle’s Place HERE. The cutting is a little advanced on the feet for true preschoolers but we managed!
• We didn’t make it to this craft but it looks fun, make your own Perry the Platypus out of felt and foam HERE.

Colouring Pages

• P is for Platypus HERE.
• Flag of Australia HERE.
• A random Platypus HERE.
• Mommy and baby with eggs HERE. Though the eggs are bigger than they should be etc etc.

Worksheets

• Compare the tracks of various Australian animals HERE.
• Learn a bit about the Platypus and colour one as well HERE.
• Wordsearch for the older kids HERE.
• All about platypus colouring page and fill in the blank riddle HERE.
• Duck Billed Platypus Anatomy HERE.
• Platypus mini book to fill in yourself HERE.
• Platypus notebooking pages with colour image of a swimming platypus HERE.
• Templates that we used for our end of book facts of interest HERE.
• Not so much a worksheet but a POEM!! 4-40 has a great platypus poem HERE.

We have an amazing picture of platypus babies thanks to Facebook via Dr. Carin Bondar – Biologist with a Twist. Keep in mind her Facebook profile HERE does have some more mature content this picture is certainly worth it! The tagline with this picture when it made its way to my timeline is as follows:

Here’s your daily dose of adorable – baby platypuses! There’s no official name for baby platypuses, but they’re often referred to as puggles or platypups.
Platypuses are one of the five extant species of monotreme, meaning that they are mammals that lay eggs. It’s also one of the very few venomous mammals – the male has a “spur” that’s capable of delivering enough venom to kill a small dog.

Babies

Videos:

I will for the most part embed, but some do not allow it. Hopefully these will remain valid videos for some time! Our first video is from youTube subscriber 911TRUTHINATOR and is a longer educational piece on the “World’s Strangest Animal.”

National Geographic and their dangerous hunter themed video. I will warn you, they pump up the platypus to seem scary (??) the kids did NOT approve.

A short video of the Senior Platypus Keeper Ian Elton with Ember the 6 month old platypus.

In Australia, Go Paddling With the Platypus. Seriously… we live on the wrong continent. This video gives a bit of a close look to a playful platypus.

Check out the video below to see a platypus doing platypus things at Mount Field National Park.

Of course there are all the moments of Perry the Platypus on Phineas and Ferb. We specifically borrowed The Perry Files from the library. Wild Kratts also have a platypus focused episode called Platypus Cafe that you can purchase on Amazon.com.

Helpful links:

• Wonder how the platypus got its name? Well Wiki Answers knows right HERE.
• National Geographic Kids Creature Feature platypus HERE.
• KidsBiology.com has a brief page on the platypus HERE.
• Squuidoo has a great fact page HERE.

Part of the lapbook calls for looking at the Echidna who is the other mammal in the Monotreme family. So here are our links that we used to supplement what tiny bit of information we had in our library books!

• EnchantedLearning has a page with an anatomy picture HERE.
• Activity Village has a mini book we used to record what we learned HERE. We took the little file folder shape from the lapbook and made it into a pocket to put our mini book in.
• Kids.net.au has a great Echidna page HERE.

We used two videos with our Echidna. I am warning you now, youTube seems to carry a lot of information on the male reproductive organs of the Echidna. The two videos I have below do NOT cover this aspect as I did not feel that the… uniqueness of this portion of the animal was necessary to our learning.

First a National Geographic Video – World’s Weirdest.

And our second video about an Echidna Puggle at Taronga Zoo. Unlike the platypus, the echidna has an official name for its babies – the puggle.

And that is that! Here are a few of our pages! I hope this comes in helpful. If it does, please send me a message, leave a comment… etc.

Platypus cover

A couple sample pages

And two more

FOR PLATYPUS RESOURCES PLEASE GO TO “PLATYPUS IN DEPTH”

February 21-22

We watched a rather lengthy video on the Platypus today! So of course I need to share it here!

The resulting mini book

Trinity and Emanuel made their very own paperbag puppet today of the Platypus. Just add googly eyes to the bag and template and you are golden. You can find the version we did HERE.

Hard at work

Zander and Gavin finished a book with me from our advance reading list… Kid in Chief! You can read their review of it HERE. Just keep in mind that there ARE some spoilers with their review. It was a fun book that deals with the job of being President.

We had TWO books to share! The first was a story called Platypus by Chris Riddell, it was fun to have Trinity involved in this one!

Gavin and Trinity

Our second book had a section on the platypus. One of the very unique animals about to use or see the electricity in other animals! Electric Animals by Natalie Lunis.

Zander with our little book

We also brought out the tracing paper, Trinity wanted a Hello Kitty picture and I figured it would be a good addition to our lapbooks if the boys traced not only a platypus out of one of our library books but also an Echidna, the other animal in this tiny family.

Hello Kitty

Echidna and Platypus, hopefully they will show better in the lapbook

We had a family trip out to the store as well. We needed it… time out in the van and the store doing a little shopping and getting some fresh air!

Babies in the sun

Friday brought with it MORE snow! We have some very happy boys with their fresh snow to dig in! Of course we had to continue with the platypus and two more videos. The first is a National Geographic one where really they TRIED to make the platypus scary. The boys were thoroughly unimpressed!

The second a quick video of a platypus handler with a 6 month old platypus, basically useful for the cuteness factor and a bit of a show on how they feel around with their bills.

Emanuel did a riddle style worksheet from TeacherVision. We read the information at the top and then worked together to fill in the riddle. It is amazing how many of the facts they remember. Although not totally surprising as it is hard to forget that it has a bill, webbed feet, beaver tail, venom AND lays eggs but is a mammal!!

Emanuel’s worksheet

We had a rather fun book called A Platypus, Probably by Sneed B. Collard III for our book of the day.

All of my boys

It amazes me how the structure the boys have created in the backyard with all that snow that keeps falling is looking more and more like a burrow. We have our own little home in the backyard! 

So quiet

Miss Trinity and Miss Echo got in some quality girly play time themselves!

Purty

I finished a scarf that is either an August birthday present or a Christmas present done super early. You can find the pattern for sale for this on CrochetSpot HERE. I used the Caron simply soft yarn and it is so soft and shimmery!

Toilet Paper Scarf

 Ending the day with the kids watching some Minecraft videos on youTube I think we did good! I know that we are having some quality family time around the learning and the work and some of the family time IS learning… 

the joys of youTube

So hopefully I will get the rest of the platypus blog entries up in good time! And then there is that pesky resource one to include as well! We are loving our time on the platypus!

Bit of an 80’s retro baby