Giraffe Fun for Kids
What does a giraffe have in common with a snowflake? No two are exactly alike! Even though giraffes may look similar, each giraffe’s spot pattern is unique. Several things make giraffes different from other animals. You may already know that giraffes are the tallest mammals. And you may have seen the long, blue-purple tongues of the Milwaukee County Zoo’s reticulated giraffes. Giraffes have prehensile tongues. That means they can grab and grip items with their tongues, like you can with your fingers!
The Kids Alive section of the Zoological Society of Milwaukee’s January 2013 Alive magazine helped you get into the giraffe mood. You could create a cozy, giraffe-print scarf to keep your neck warm, just like a giraffe’s coat does. You could make some yummy grape popsicles that turned your tongue bluish-purple like a giraffe’s. And you could boost your giraffe vocabulary with our word puzzles.
Below we have repeated some of those activities, but with more information. You’ll also find the answers to the January 2013 Kids Alive puzzles.
See how many words you can make using the seven letters in “giraffe.” Start with one-letter words, and work up to longer words! Come up with at least 10! Click here to see our answers!
You can make your own giraffe-spot scarf by following the directions in the Kids Alive section of the Zoological Society of Milwaukee’s January 2013 Alive magazine. To make the giraffe spots for our cozy scarf, you’ll need to print out our template of spots.
Click here to view a print-friendly version of our template!
The materials for our scarf can be found at the following locations. Prices may vary. The total cost for one scarf was about $4.75 in fall 2012.
- Hancock Fabrics:
Length of tan fleece 9 inches (1/4 yard) by 58-60 inches - $2.50 ($9.99 per yard)
- Michaels (craft store):
4 sheets (9 by 12 inches each) brown felt - $1.16 ($0.29 per sheet)
Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue®, 2-ounce bottle - $1.09
Grape Giraffe Pops
(makes 24 ice pops)
Giraffes use their purple-blue tongues to grip and tear leaves from trees. You can turn your tongue a blue-purple, too. Make these yummy grape ice pops. Then lick! To make 24 ice pops, it cost us only $6.55.* That’s less than 28 cents per pop!
You will need:
- 2-quart pitcher
- 1 can (12 ounces) frozen 100% grape juice*
- 24 wax-paper cups (3-ounce size)*
- 24 popsicle sticks*
- Non-toxic brown marker pen
- Prepare juice in pitcher following directions on can. Fill each cup 2/3 with juice; place cups on flat surface in freezer 2 hours.
- With marker, decorate half of each popsicle stick, on both sides, with giraffe spots. When grape juice in freezer is thick enough, stick undecorated side of popsicle into center of each cup.
- Freeze juice cups at least another 2 hours. When ready to eat, remove an ice pop from freezer, let sit 2 minutes, pull out of cup by stick, and enjoy!
*The total cost of ice pop materials was about $6.55 for 24 ice pops in fall 2012, or 28 cents per pop! The materials for our grape popsicles can be found at the following locations. Prices may vary by location.
Most Milwaukee-area grocery retailers:
1 can (12 ounces) frozen 100% grape juice - $1.87
24 wax-paper cups (3-ounce size) - $1.69 for 100 cups
Michaels (craft store):
24 popsicle sticks - $2.99 for 50 sticks
Untangle these jumbled giraffe-related words:
Answers: Click here
Photos by Richard Brodzeller
Model: Shoshana R.