Leonardo and the Animals

"…The mere idea of permitting the existence of unnecessary suffering, still more that of taking life, was abhorrent to him. Vasari tells, as an instance of his love of animals, how when in Florence he passed places where birds were sold he would frequently take them from their cages with his own hand, and having paid the sellers the price that was asked would let them fly away in the air, thus giving them back their liberty.”

The Mind of Leonardo da Vinci (1928), Edward MacCurdy.


In homage to our school’s namesake, Leonardo da Vinci, the students of Infantil II will be starting a new project entitled “Leonardo and the animals”.

It is well known that Leonardo had a great love for animals. His sketches are evidence of this. He studied butterflies, dragonflies, cats, horses, birds and even wrote fables about mice, weasels, ants etc. Just as Leonardo was enchanted by the study of animals our students as well are captivated by the animal world. We regularly visit the birds, fish, ducks and turtles at school. A butterfly or bug entering the classroom is call for extreme joy and fascination.

For this reason we could see no better way to honor the schools 20th anniversary than by basing our project on a topic that would please anyone from a 15th century artist to a 21st century preschooler, animals!

The project will focus on six animals evident in Leonardo’s works: the butterfly, dragonfly, horse, bird, ant and cat.

It has been said that children are born scientists. They are sharp observers who are curious about the world and eager to use all of their senses-seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting-to make the best sense they can of their experiences.

Throughout this project we would like to encourage this scientific, Leonardo da Vinci like behavior. We will encourage the students to observe these animals and learn about their characteristics, habitats, life cycles, eating habits, and more.

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