Think of a favorite animal (this could be a pet, an animal you have seen at the Minnesota Zoo, an animal from a favorite show or book, etc). This animal can be real or imaginary.

Once you have your favorite animal in mind, your task is to describe this animal in as much detail as possible so someone else could learn what your animal is without you telling them what the animal is.

Here are some prompts to think about:

1. Describe the physical characteristics of your animal: what size, shape, color, is it?
2. Describe the behavioral characteristics of your animal: is your animal active or sleepy? Is it slow or fast? A hunter or prey? Does it climb or dig?
3. Describe the emotional characteristics of your animal: Do you think it’s happy, scared, or funny?

Once you have some answers to those prompts and you’ve described it in good detail, write a letter or a postcard to a friend or family member describing the physical, behavioral, and emotional characteristics. Describe in as much detail as possible and see if your friend or family member can guess what the animal is! You may even decide to write to your animal as a creative exercise. What would you write to your animal, if you could send it a letter? What might it write back to you??

The Minnesota Zoo would love to see examples of how you used this activity at home! Please share pictures or comments via email at [email protected], and take less than 5 minutes of time to provide us feedback by completing this short survey.