Are you starting a zoo theme in your preschool classroom or homeschool? Keep reading for the wildest zoo preschool activities around!
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ZOO PRESCHOOL ACTIVITIES
One of the wildest themes to teach (whether you’re homeschooling or teaching in a preschool or kindergarten classroom) is a zoo theme. Little ones LOVE learning about the animals in the zoo. This leads to interactive play and STEM exploration. So let’s get ready to visit the zoo and build new skills with the help of zoo animal friends!
Keep reading for over 40 zoo activities for your preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students. These ideas include literacy, math, fine and gross motor skills, sensory play, art, and more. Grab your printables for math & literacy here. Oh, and there are some freebies, too!
If you want a copy of my yearly themes (including an editable version where you can type in your own themes), check out this freebie. (*Please note: You will need to download this file to your computer and then open it with Adobe in order to add your own themes. You cannot add your themes from your web browser.)
ZOO ACTIVITIES: LITERACY
Before you get started with your zoo theme, make sure you have your books all ready to go! You can check out our favorite books for this theme in this post. There are over 40 books for you to choose from! Make sure to request these from your local library (or order them from Amazon) a few weeks before you start your theme.
You’re definitely going to want to start your zoo theme with these vocabulary cards! Does your little one know what a sloth looks like? Have they ever seen an anteater?! These cards are the perfect way to introduce your little learner to the 15 zoo-related words they’ll be learning about over the course of this theme.
Finding zoo vocabulary words that you’ve hidden around the room is a fun activity for your little one! They love getting up and moving, and you’ll love how engaged they are! After they find a vocabulary card, have them match the card with the pictures on the Write the Room sheet and write the vocabulary word to practice their handwriting. (We love these little pencils for this activity!)
If there’s one skill our little ones need more practice with, it’s rhyming! Rhyming helps your little one learn how to play with the sounds in language, which they’ll need to do in order to read. This fun activity has your little one rolling a cube with different pictures of children (and their names). After saying the name on the cube, give your little one two words (one rhyming and one not) and have them tell you which word rhymes with the child’s name. As your child progresses, they can come up with a rhyming word on their own. Which child will make it to the zoo first?!
This decoding activity is sure to engage your little one! Using the decoder sheet, your child will match the alphabet letter to the picture on their animal strip. Then help them read the name of the animal after they have decoded the zookeeper’s message!
Not all handwriting practice should be letters and numbers. In fact, before little ones can write their letters and numbers, they should be able to make different types of lines: straight lines, curvy lines, wavy lines, jagged lines, and more! Tracing different types of lines (whether on cards or in a sensory tray) is the first step to correct letter formation, so don’t skip this step!
Syllable awareness is an important phonological awareness skill that little ones need in order to become strong readers. This activity asks little ones to sort pictures based on the number of syllables in the word. Clapping to the sound of each syllable will help them put the picture of the animal on the correct cage. For a challenge, they can put the animal names in ABC order and talk about the beginning sound of each name.
This activity requires you and your little ones to watch a YouTube video or read a book about herbivores and carnivores. After discussing the difference, your child can sort the animals by what they eat. (We keep it simple & don’t include omnivores with this one!) If they need a challenge, ask your child to name other herbivores and carnivores they are familiar with and talk about what makes them the same & different.
For our youngest learners, we need to explicitly teach them the difference between a letter and a word. In this activity, little ones will differentiate letter cards and word cards. They should be able to tell you which are letters (and the sound they represent) and which are words made up of the letters. If they are able to, have them sound out and read the words, which are all decodable CVC words.
Let’s see how many words begin or end with the /z/ sound. Have your little one slide the slider to reveal one picture, have them say the word, and then ask them to determine where the /z/ sound is. This is the perfect way to help them develop phonemic awareness skills. For a challenge, they can spin the spinner and come up with their own words that start or end with the /z/ sound.
Here’s another way to practice syllables…but this time, we’re adding in fine motor skills, too! This activity has your little one saying the name of the animal in the picture and determining how many syllables are in that name. Then they clip a clothespin on the correct number.
No clothespins? No problem! You could also have your little one sort the animals by syllables and then write the number in the box on their printable. So many options for this activity (check it out here!)
Being able to identify the beginning sound of a word is a beginning phonemic awareness skill for little ones to learn. This activity has them saying the zoo animal name, identifying the beginning sound, and matching the letter to the sound.
This cut and paste activity helps with fine motor skills and builds background knowledge that’s crucial for reading comprehension. Your child will determine if an animal picture is an illustration or a photograph. After cutting out the pictures, they will paste them to the correct page. Learn more about how to teach scissor skills in THIS video.
My absolute favorite way to teach kids letters & sounds is by using animals as keywords. If your little one loves animals, you NEED this Animal Alphabet freebie! You can download the cards HERE and then check out THIS YouTube video to see how I use them!
ZOO ACTIVITIES: MATH
This activity has your little one picking a number, matching it with a ten frame, and putting that many giraffes on the mat. For a challenge, have them use the Ten Frame to make addition problems that add up to ten.
For this activity, your little ones will roll a dice and count (or tell you how many without counting) the dots. After matching the count with the hand on the sheet, they will put a tally mark next to the animal picture. Demonstrate how that animal moves and have them act that movement out. This will be a lot of fun for them and help to develop their gross motor skills!
Counting practice just got a whole lot more fun! Have your little one slide the number strip through the window one number at a time. They will say the number and place that many African animal pictures on the mat. There is also a strip of addition problems for higher level learners.
Following the directions on the card, your little one will place the kangaroo on the number line at the starting number. Then they will make the kangaroo jump the number of spaces indicated and tell you the number they land on. This will help them understand addition in a more concrete way, but you can also write out the addition problem to show them what that looks like. There are two number lines included: 0-10 and 10- 20. For more interactive play, make a number line on the wall using post-it notes and have them be the kangaroo!
2D shapes are an important math skill for preschoolers heading into kindergarten. Have your little one color the circles that outline the various 2D shapes, then place them around the room in a circle. Play “musical shapes” with them. Have your child stomp, slither, gallop, etc. around the cards like different animals until the music stops. Then they can tell you the shape of the card they landed on. Activities that include movement are always engaging for your little ones!
Ready to fill the zoo?! After rolling a dice, saying the number, and matching it to the key on the mat, your little one will add that animal to their zoo. They will try to get one of each animal in their zoo in order to win the game!
Building background knowledge & developing critical thinking skills are crucial for your child to have strong reading compression skills. Luckily this activity does both! Talk about and give examples of heavier and lighter objects and animals with your little ones. Have them choose two cards that are face down on the table or floor and decide which animal is lighter/heavier and place the pictures on the correct side of the mat. Not sure of the answer? Try looking it up online together on a kid-safe site such as National Geographic Kids.
In this activity, depending on the skill level of your little one, they can color the animal pictures by number, number of stars that they count in each space, or by the answer to addition or subtraction problems. Each animal picture is adorable and will look great hanging on your refrigerator!
Have you tried a sticky wall yet? This is so much fun! Tape a sheet of contact paper to the wall (sticky side out). Add animal numbers to the wall and have your little one say the number and stick that many colored pompoms (or other manipulatives) above the animal picture. For fun, you can put a picture of a lion behind the contact paper and they can stick pompoms to make his mane!
Let’s sort animals! For this activity, tape a picture of Land, Water, and Sky to the wall, or simply place the pictures on a table. Little ones will determine if the animal on their card lives on land, in the water, or flies in the air. Then they can stick their animal picture to the correct environment picture.
This is another activity that has your littles sorting and tallying animals according to the environment they go with: Land, Water, or Air. Which one has the most animals living there? This is a great way to work on tally charts and graphs, two important math skills for kindergarten readiness.
After choosing an elephant number, place that picture in the center box on the mat. Have your little one determine which elephant would be one less and which one would be one more and put the elephant pictures in the correct boxes. Place manipulatives to match the number under the elephants. You can also talk about adding (+1) and subtracting (-1) problems.
PRESCHOOL ZOO ACTIVITIES: HANDS-ON & SENSORY IDEAS
This is always a favorite activity…simple sensory bins filled with colored rice (blue for water & green for grass) and an assortment of zoo animal toys! *Click here for directions on coloring rice. Kids can use their imagination and creativity to play for hours with this simple set-up. If you don’t have colored rice, fill the bins with beans (dirt) as an alternative.
Ready to transform your little one into a lion?! Cut out the center of a paper plate and glue orange and yellow strips of paper to make a lion’s mane. This is a good activity to improve kids’ fine motor skills, too. Make sure they roar loudly when they put on their manes!
Using homemade or store-bought play dough that is rolled out, littles can use animal cookie cutters to cut out animal shapes. They can then use crayons or markers to give their animals more details, or have them create a play dough home for their animal. So many ways to play!
Using strips of paper glued, taped, or stapled together, your little one can make a paper chain snake. You can have them count how many chains they use to make their snake to add in some math practice, too!
Be ready for your little one to MOVE like an animal! Download the FREE cards for this activity in this blog post and have your little one move like the animals in the pictures. Which one will be their favorite?!
Using the free cards listed above, have your little one move like an animal along the lines on the floor made with painter’s tape. This will add more challenge to this activity and make it more fun!
We made these cookies to go along with one of our favorite books, Dear Zoo. They are a fun & simple treat to make. Using Vanilla wafers, make the monkey faces and add details with edible markers or attach candy eyes. Check out this post for more detailed-directions.
Here’s another monkey-themed activity that would go great with those monkey cookies! Paint two paper plates, making the top one look like a monkey face. Glue the plates together, but leave a hole to fill the middle with beans. Attach a handle using a popsicle stick, and then close the hole. Little ones can shake their creation while jumping around like a monkey!
These giraffe cookies are a fun treat to make after a day at the zoo! Made from a Nutter Butter cookie, graham cracker, chocolate chips, raisins, pretzels, and candy eyes, these are sure to make your little ones “stretch their necks” while eating their adorable creation. Full directions can be found in this post.
Want a sweet keepsake from your zoo theme? Try this! Have your little one paint their hand yellow & make a handprint giraffe by adding a neck and head. Check out this post for all the details!
This would make a great breakfast or snack for all elephant lovers! Bagels, cream cheese, bananas, and blueberries make up this delicious treat. Your little one can trumpet like an elephant as they eat it!
Activities that improve fine motor skills are always a plus. Little ones will trace the various shaped lines to connect the two animal pictures. They can also cut the different lines to practice their scissor skills.
This activity has you putting a line of painter’s tape on the floor. Your little one can line up their animal toys on the tape like a parade. Make sure they make the animal sounds of the animals in their parade!
Here’s a zoo activity that’s a hit with toddlers, preschoolers, and big kids alike…Free the Zoo Animals! Fill a bin with toy animals, then turn it into a cage using tape or string. Have your little ones reach in and free the animals from the cage. They can tell you the name of the animal they freed & the number of syllables in that animal’s name.
Blow up several balloons and scatter them around the yard or room. If you want, you can write an animal name on each balloon or draw a face on each balloon to look like a zoo animal. Tell you little one that they need to get the animals back into their cages (boxes or bags can be used for cages). Such a fun way to inspire imaginary play!
A DAY AT THE ZOO PRESCHOOL & PRE-K FUN
I hope these ideas helped you fill-in your zoo lesson plans for your preschool classroom or homeschool! All of the printables for this unit can be found in my A Day at the Zoo Preschool Activity Pack.
What types of Zoo preschool activities do you plan for your littles? Do you have any fun activities that would be great to add to this list? Comment below or find me on Instagram [@littleslovelearningblog] and let me know!
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Happy Learning!
