Have your first-grade students create pictures that illustrate the diets of herbivores and carnivores. After discussing the types of foods that these two types of animals eat (meat and plants), have your students create dietary pictures using magazines and grocery store circulars. Draw a line down the middle of construction paper and on the top of one column, write "Herbivores" and on the top of the other column, write "Carnivores." Instruct children to cut pictures out of the magazines and circulars that illustrate foods that the two types of animals may eat. Have them glue the pictures onto the paper underneath the correct heading. Have kids share their diet pictures.
Talk to your students about the difference of teeth between herbivores and carnivores. Explain that carnivores have pointed, sharp teeth, which help them tear through meat and chew it easier, while herbivores tend to have rounded teeth because the food they eat is easier to chew. Print out or draw pictures of different types of teeth that herbivores and carnivores would have. Set the images out and instruct students to sort through them and place them into two separate piles; one pile for herbivores and the other for carnivores.
Discuss the different types of herbivores and carnivores with your students. After naming and talking about the different types of animals that fall under these two categories, reinforce knowledge of these animals with a game. Print up pictures that illustrate the different types of herbivores and carnivores you have spoken about; lions, bears, sharks, elephants, giraffes and zebras, for example. Divide your class into two teams. Hold up one picture at a time, and the first team to correctly state whether the animal is an herbivore or a carnivore earns a point. The team that earns the most points wins the game.
Talk with your students about the habitats that animals live in. Explain to them that within each ecosystem, there are both herbivores and carnivores. After talking about the different types of ecosystems -- oceans, deserts and jungles, for example -- have children create pictures that illustrate herbivores and carnivores within each ecosystem. For instance, for the ocean, students may draw pictures of sharks and dolphins for carnivores and whales and manatee for omnivores.