Tiger Lesson Plans

Tigers are beautiful and dangerous, and readily capture the imagination. Enjoy a study of tigers with an easy room set up and plenty of cross-curricular connections.

Get some basic information, videos, and a map of where tigers can be found in the wild at National Geographic’s tiger page.  You can also find a tiger e-card here. Send one to each student to whet their appetites for the tiger unit, or have students send them to their parents — it’s a great first lesson on using online forms, a basic introduction to the use of the keyboard and mouse, or practice for your youngest students in spelling their names and learning their and their parents’ email addresses.

Tigers are a common mascot for schools and for sports team, so it’s easy to find images of tigers for bulletin boards.

Use orange or black background paper for your bulletin board, and a suitable motto:

• “Our Class is GRRRREAT!”
• “We’re Tigers for Math!”

Add some leafy plants, real or paper, to simulate a jungle for your tigers.

Read about some literary tigers:

• Keith Baker’s [amazon_textlink asin=’0152001220′ text=’Who Is the Beast’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’us-1′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’cac0f55c-41cb-11e8-8a3b-85e9f5701a88′] is a great picture book for young students, and you can add philosophical questions for older elementary or even secondary level students. Discuss responses to people different from ourselves.
• William Blake’s [amazon_textlink asin=’0241251966′ text='”The Tyger”‘ template=’ProductLink’ store=’us-1′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’12b31524-41cc-11e8-aca0-af6756204fec’] and beautifully read on YouTube.
• [amazon_textlink asin=’1979015279′ text='”Tiger! Tiger!”‘ template=’ProductLink’ store=’us-1′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’f6737b8a-41cb-11e8-a3a2-f1e9338216d7′] by Rudyard Kipling
• “The Lady and the Tiger” by Frank Stockton
• And of course the limerick:
  There once was a lady from Niger
  Who smiled as she rode on a tiger
  They came back from the ride
  With the lady inside
  And the smile on the face of the tiger

There are lots and lots of tiger mascots and tiger images for companies, from “Put a Tiger in Your Tank” to “Tony the Tiger.” Choose a tiger to research.

Online lesson plans:

• Tiger Timeline of Indian History shows how tigers are interwoven into the history of India, while giving kids opportunities to practice skills with chronological thinking.
• Crayola’s tiger mask art lesson uses [amazon_textlink asin=’B00027C7K2′ text=’Model Magic’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’us-1′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’3a1cecd5-41cf-11e8-a647-576a24b12b45′] to make a realistic tiger mask. Use the masks to retell folk tales about tigers.
• Lesson plans for “The Lambikin” include tigers, and links to tiger lessons.
• The Toymaker’s Tiger Races toy is great for following directions.
• “Taming the Paper Tiger: a Unit on Paper and the Environment” uses the folktale “The Tiger’s Whisker” and includes a printable coloring sheet. This free download lesson was written by Rebecca Haden and illustrated by Jay Jaro, just like the FreshPlans ebooks.

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