This collection of activities, videos, read-aloud ideas, and conversation starters features collections from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institue. It provides teachers, parents, and caregivers of young children with a wide range of ways to engage children in learning about cheetahs, including the special connection between one cheetah that lives at the National Zoo and Olympic runner Carmelita Jeter. These activities can be paired with the 30-minute recorded "Cats of All Kinds" music and movement program linked in this collection. While the activities are designed for preschool-age children, they can easily be scaffolded for older or younger ages.

Designed as part of the Get a Head Start with the Smithsonian collaboration with the National Head Start Association, these activities support the following Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF) standards:

- Goal P-LC 2. Child understands and responds to increasingly complex communication and language from others.

- Goal P-LIT 5: Child asks and answers questions about a book that was read aloud.

- Goal P-ATL 11. Child shows interest in and curiosity about the world around them.

- Goal P-ATL 13. Child uses imagination in play and interactions with others.

- Goal P-SE 9. Child recognizes self as a unique individual having own abilities, characteristics, emotions, and interests.

- Goal P-PMP 1. Child demonstrates control, strength, and coordination of large muscles.

- Goal P-PMP 3. Child demonstrates control, strength, and coordination of small muscles.

Goals for Scaffolding for Infants/Toddlers:

- Goal IT-LC 12. Child comprehends meaning from pictures and stories.

- Goal IT-ATL 7. Child shows interest in and curiosity about objects, materials, or events.

- Goal IT-ATL 8. Child uses creativity to increase understanding and learning

- Goal IT-PMP 4. Child demonstrates effective and efficient use of large muscles to explore the environment.

- Goal IT-PMP 5. Child uses sensory information and body awareness to understand how their body relates to the environment.