I have...Who Has...? Animals Edition

Practice animal vocabulary through an ‘I Have, Who Has?’ card game. Students listen for their animal and read their card to continue the class chain.
Grades
K–2
File type
PDF
Preparation
Print ready

Updated Feb 21, 2024

Subject
ELA, Vocabulary
Topic
Animals, I Have Who Has
Resource types
Games
Preparation
Print ready
Standards
SL.1.1

Product description

From the author

The "I have...Who Has...? Animals Edition" is an engaging whole class reading game featuring animal terms that first grade through third grade readers will enjoy. To play, the educator shuffles the cards and distributes them to students. A player begins by asking "I have a ____. Who has ____?" If a classmate has the card with the requested animal, they respond "I have a ____." and ask for another animal. Students listen carefully to follow the sequence as each animal card is uncovered. This interactive game is an excellent way to build reading skills, reinforce animal vocabulary, and encourage active listening and participation among early elementary students. With multiple editions available, "I have...Who Has" is a classroom favorite across many grades and subjects.

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

  • Read a printed animal name aloud from a card and hold the whole class's attention while doing so

  • Match a spoken animal name to the picture on your own card and respond at the right moment

  • Listen through a long sequence without a visible cue, tracking whether your card has been called yet

Teaching tips

  • Deal out every single card before starting - the teacher letter is explicit that the chain breaks if any card is left over, and it is fine for a child to hold two or three

  • Give a quieter reader the start card marked "I have the first card. Let's play!", since that turn has no listening demand attached to it

  • Play a second round after shuffling; the order of animals is fixed by the cards themselves, so the sequence stays the same while students may receive different cards

Skills covered

  • Reading single words aloud - each turn requires a child to read a printed animal name clearly enough for the whole class to hear it.

  • Sustained listening - with thirty-three links in the chain, a child has to follow every turn to know when theirs arrives.

  • Animal vocabulary - the deck stretches past the common animals into hedgehog, goose, donkey, beetle, mosquito, crab and panda.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

What happens if there are more cards than students?

Deal them out anyway. The teacher letter closes with the point that all cards must be distributed or the chain will not complete, and that it does not matter if some students end up holding more than one.

Which animals are in the deck?

Thirty-three, mixing familiar and less familiar: fox, dog, kangaroo, monkey, butterfly, pig, frog, owl, bird, snake, bat, hedgehog, duck, goose, hippo, cow, lion, horse, zebra, spider, elephant, sheep, crocodile, crab, cat, donkey, beetle, turtle, penguin, fish, mosquito, panda and bee.

How does a child know their card is the one being asked for?

By the picture. Most playing cards name the next animal on the "Who has a ___?" line and show their animal as an illustration near the "I have …" line, so the listener matches the spoken name to the drawing in their hand rather than reading a second word.

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Curriculum

Standards, concepts & topics

Standards

  • SL.1.1

Core concepts

  • Animal vocabulary

  • Word recognition

  • Listening skills

  • Whole-class game

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