Education Resources

In this video, learn why and how National Zoo keepers brush the teeth of their sloth bears. Afterward, watch Pinky learn how to brush her own teeth!

Teeth come in different shapes and sizes. The shape of a tooth helps scientists know what food the animal eats or ate when it was alive. In this lesson, students will join learn about different shapes and sizes of teeth from prehistoric carnivores. Students will also make and share observations of different teeth, go on a fossil hunt in their classroom, and make their own fossil teeth necklace.

What is a home? What is a habitat? Explore these ideas, then meet a specific bird and the place it calls home!

This resource Includes:

1. What humans and animals need in a home to survive
2. Examples of different kinds of homes and habitats
3. Extension activities about other kinds of homes and habitats

1. Lesson Plan: "At Home with My Family"
2. Habitat Play
3. Basic Needs Song

Learn to identify colors while engaging with the beauty of nature in this hands-on activity! Just like humans, animal friends need to eat, including pollinators, who find their food inside of flowers. Pollinators are drawn to some colors more than others, and this helps them decide which flowers to visit when they get hungry. In this activity, help six pollinator friends find some of their favorite flowers so they can eat and help new flowers grow!

Did you know there are 15 known colors of male peacocks and female peahens? In this video, search for all the different colors and patterns in the spectacular Peacock Room at the National Museum of Asian Art! With the help of Pinky Jackalope and Smithsonian educator Brigitte, see if you can find blue, green, gold, and purple colors in a real peacock feather before searching for these colors in the painted peacocks on the walls and ceiling.

Take a Hue Hike with Pinky at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and Smithsonian Gardens. Discover the colorful nature that surrounds you, whether in a forest or even in a city!