Critter Cuisine Creations

K–12 Resource: Researching

Design menus with yummy foods for animal friends

Title

A Hare in the Forest

Maker

Hans Hoffmann (German, 1545/1550–1591/1592)

Date Created

about 1585

Material

Oil on panel

Dimensions

Unframed (With Radius Of Panel, Right Side): 62.2 × 78.4 cm (24 1/2 × 30 7/8 in.), Unframed (Without Radius Of Panel, Right Side): 61.9 × 78.4 cm (24 3/8 × 30 7/8 in.), Framed [Outer Dim] (Display): 80.6 × 96.5 × 10.2 cm (31 3/4 × 38 × 4 in.)

Place Created

Germany

Credit Line

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2001.12

About

Learning Objectives

Pretend to be chefs at a restaurant for animals! Let’s make menus with yummy foods for our animal friends.

Materials Needed

  • Paper or cardstock (for menus)
  • Crayons, markers, or colored pencils

Assignment

Today, we’re going to make a restaurant menu for some special animals from the amazing and detailed painting, *A Hare in the Forest. We’ll learn about what these animals like to eat and create delicious dishes just for them!

Pick Your Animal

Look at the animals in A Hare in the Forest. Choose one animal that you want to make a menu for. It could be the bunny, the spider, the snail, or any other animal you like in the painting!

Learn About Your Animal

Now, let’s find out what your animal likes to eat. You can use books or websites to learn more. What kind of foods do you think your animal would enjoy? How is what they want to eat different from what you like to eat?

Design Your Menu

On your paper, draw a menu just like in a real restaurant. Write the name of your restaurant at the top. Then, draw pictures of the dishes of food you want to include on your menu.

Think about the foods your animal likes to eat. How can you make yummy dishes for them?

Share Your Menu

When you’re done, take turns sharing your menu with the class. Describe the food you created and why you chose that for your animal. Did you include any special ingredients?

Let’s Talk About It

Now that we’ve all made our menus, let’s talk about what we learned. How did you decide what foods to include for your animal? What did you learn about different animals’ diets?

Related Materials

  1. Explore A Hare in the Forest

    Close Looking

    Brown bunny lying in front of trees, surrounded by brush and small creatures like snails, lizards, butterflies, and a bird in the top right corner.

    Discover an amazing painting full of creatures by Hans Hoffmann

  2. Meet Hans Hoffmann: A Renaissance Painter of Nature and People

    Reading

    Painting of nature floor including plants, snails, a lizard, and a butterfly.

    Read about an artist who enjoyed painting nature

  3. Meet the Residents of A Hare in the Forest

    Close Looking

    Brown bunny lying in front of trees, surrounded by brush and small creatures like snails, lizards, butterflies, and a bird in the top right corner.

    Discover amazing creatures and plants in a painting

  4. Nature’s Pantry

    Watch a Video

    Thumbnail featuring a painting of plants with white text that reads: Nature's Pantry

    Learn how producers and consumers are connected in the food chain

  5. Let’s Build Our Local Ecosystem

    Developing Models

    Thumbnail featuring animals, grass, and sun graphics on white background with black text that reads: Let's Build Our Local Ecosystem.

    Create a food chain model to show how plants and animals work together in your community

  6. Be a Nature Photographer

    Researching

    A little boy looks at the screen of a smart device displaying a portion of a garden.

    Take photos of plants and animals to learn about food chains

  7. Explore the Food Chain in A Hare in the Forest

    Developing Models

    Brown bunny lying in front of trees, surrounded by brush and small creatures like snails, lizards, butterflies, and a bird in the top right corner.

    Draw a food chain to show how plants and animals depend on each other for energy

Extensions

  • Create a critter restaurant that is the correct size for your critters. What does it need to include? What would the eating area look like?
  • Write a letter to your animal asking if it likes the menu. Then write a letter as if your animal is giving a review of the menu you made for them.
  • Make a commercial or advertisement for your restaurant. Share with your family and friends.

Suggested Modifications

If you do not have access to books or the internet, use your imagination to think about what your animal might like to eat. What do you think your animal would enjoy?

Related Standards

Credits and Licensing

This page is licensed under the Creative Commons NonCommercial 4.0 International license. You are free to make use of these pages under the terms of this license. Note that individual elements or portions of a page (for example, a copyrighted image) may be excluded from the Creative Commons license. Excluded items are clearly identified.

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