Early math learning is fun and easy with our special animal guests! Watch the recorded program to explore patterns and colors with Lita the cheetah and Rainbow the chameleon. Then play with shapes and colors with activities from the National Air and Space Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and more!
Early Math Concepts
National Museum of American History, National Air and Space Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
ELOF P-SCI-1; P-SCI-2; P-SCI-3
Classroom Activities
Shape Detectives
Join Pinky and Nick for a Smithsonian shape hunt! Print out the included magnifying glasses and help them find different shapes at six Smithsonian museums.
Flamingo Color Mixing
This playful experiment brings color mixing to life as children learn how flamingos get their pink feathers!
Rocket Shapes
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a rectangle and a triangle! The National Air and Space Museum shows us how to find all our favorite shapes within a rocket! Then create your own colorful rocket out of cut-paper shapes.
Pre-Math Music Playlist
Put on your dancing shoes! It's time to explore pre-math concepts like shapes, colors, and patterns with Nick the Music Man. Nick and our friends at the National Head Start Association put together a playlist of songs inspired by Pre-Math with Cheetahs!
Inside a Diamond
Explore shapes with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Learn how to look at an artwork with young children, then create a mosaic using cut-out shapes.
Explore More Programs
Discovering Amphibians
Join us as we celebrate Amphibian Week. Learn about amphibians, get an up-close look of some of them and chat with an amphibian expert.
K-5
Supports NGSS K-LS1-1, K-ESS2-2, K-ESS3-1, 1-LS1-2, 2-LS4-1, 3-LS3-1, 3-LS3-2, 3-LS4-3, 4-LS1-1
amphibians, adaptations, habitats, life cycles
Free
Let's Celebrate!
Join the National Zoo as we celebrate Head Start's 60th birthday with the help of Giant pandas and meerkats! Discover how not only the zoo celebrates birthdays but how people celebrate special moments across the world!
Celebrations
Supports Head Start ELOF Goals
Exploring Neighborhood Birds
Birds are everywhere! Learn about some of our neighborhood birds and the techniques used to study them from a migratory bird scientist.
2-8
Supports NGSS 2-PS1-2, 2-LS2-2, 2-LS4-1, 3-LS1-1, 3-LS3-1, 3-LS3-2, 3-LS4-3, 4-LS1-1, 5-LS2-1, MS-LS1-4, MS-LS1-5, MS-LS2-A
birds, migration, observation, tracking, bird banding
Patterns, Cause and Effect, Interdependence of science, engineering, and technology
Free