The Zoo Animals Themed Activities were a hit with all involved – learning about African animals, drawing 2D shapes, building animal homes, making a lion vegetable platter and eating it, making giraffes out of handprints and creating animal masks.
Zoo Animals Themed Activities
Creative Space
Play dough, stamps, scissors, lacing beads and cards, puzzles and blocks are set out for the children to choose from, and get creative during this 30 minute period.
Zoo Animals Themed Circle Time
Every day during Circle Time we do the morning routine, which includes the Calendar and ‘Number, Color, Shape and Letter of the week’. We then read a story, sing a few songs and do a group activity.
On every Monday we change the ‘Classroom Helpers’ Classroom Jobs. Each child has a name card on a popsicle stick, and they get to choose their job of the week.
Zoo Animals Themed Circle Time Activities
Activity 1: Weekend News
Every Monday morning each child gets a chance to talk about their weekend and what they did. The children then draw a picture in the ‘weekend news’ journal, and the teacher writes down what they have said.
Activity 2: Guess the animal sound game
Watch the video above and let the children guess all the animal sounds
Activity 3: Animals Movement Cards
Print out and laminate the movement cards. Show the children the cards and let them copy the movements.
Activity 4: Word & Picture cards match
Print out and laminate the cards. Stick all the picture cards on a wall or on the whiteboard. Ask children what the beginning sound of each animal word is. Write these next to the animal cards. Show the children the word cards and ask them to match these to the picture cards.
Activity 5: Virtual Zoo field-trip
Visit the zoo and learn all about the zoo animals in this 25 minutes virtual tour with Blippy.
Zoo Animals Themed Songs
Fifteen action songs and rhymes all about Zoo Animals to get those bodies moving and grooving. Click on the image to head over to the post.
Zoo Animals Themed Books
Twenty-six of the best story picture books that are perfect for a theme all about Zoo Animals. Click on the image below to read what these books are about.
Zoo Animals Themed Literacy Activities
Handa’s Surprise EMERGENT READER
Handa wants to surprise Akeyo, her friend, and decides to take seven pieces of delicious fruit to her. Akeyo lives in the neighboring village. But as Handa wanders along, a series of sneaky animals steal something from Handa’s basket, which she’s carrying on her head… When Handa reaches Akeyo, will she have anything left to offer her friend?
The Handa’s surprise emergent reader will help your little learners develop sequencing skills while learning about all the exotic animals and fruits of Kenya. It will also help children with identifying words from their beginning and ending sounds.
What you need:
- Handa’s Surprisse Emergent Reader (assembled beforehand)
- Scissors
- Glue
- Coloring Pencils/ Crayons
How to use this resource:
After reading the book, or watching the animated read-aloud on YouTube here, discuss the setting and the characters of the story. Where does Handa live? What is her friends name? Which animals did she come across? Which fruit did each animal take? How did she get tangerines in the basket? Do the children think they can carry a basket of fruit on their heads?
Get the printable story props over at KizClub.com for free!
Print, cut and laminate the story props and use these to re-tell the story. Hand out the pictures of the animals and the fruit to the children and ask them to bring it to the front and to stick it on the board as the story is being told.
Now hand out the activity sheets with the words on and ask children to cut these out. Write all the names of the animals and the fruits on the board and ask the children which letter each animal word begins with.
Hand out the emergent readers and go through it page by page with the children. Ask the children which animal Handa came across first. Which sound does this animals name begin with? Can they find the word that begins with that letter? Which fruit did the animal take? What sound does the fruit begin with?
Children paste the words in the correct spaces. Some children will want to write the words by themselves, instead of pasting.
Center 1: Beginning Sounds
Print and laminate the sheets. Place on magnetic white boards. Children use magnetic letters to match the correct beginning sound with each animal.
Center 2: Bingo
Print and laminate all the cards. There are two sets. One set has only pictures on and one set only words. Use as differentiation activity. Mix and match and have fun!
Zoo Animals Themed Math Activities
Center 1: Graph the Animals Center
Print and laminate or copy the black & white version! There are two sets. The first one goes up to 15 and the second one up to 10. Great for differentiation. Children count all the animals on the picture sheet. They then color the blocks on the graph and fill out the recording sheet using whiteboard markers.
Center 2: Roll & Write Center
Print and laminate the color sheets for re-use or simply copy the black and white sheet if you prefer to send it home with your children. Children roll a dice and write the number it landed on in the first block. Continue until all blocks are full. Further advanced children can roll 2 or even 3 dice at a time.
Center 3: Roll & Draw 2D Shapes Center
This center has two sets. One for practicing writing numerals and the other one to practice identifying shape names and drawing these. Print and laminate the color sheets for re-use or simply copy the black and white sheet if you prefer to send it home with your children. Children roll a dice and write the number it landed on in the first block. Continue until all blocks are full. Further advanced children can roll 2 or even 3 dice at a time.
Zoo Animals Themed Art
I found this super cute zoo animal masks over at firstpallete.com. Click on the image to head over to their blog for full instructions on creating tiger, zebra, elephant, bear, giraffe, lion & leopard masks.
Zoo Animals Themed Science: Animal Habitats
We did not have enough time this week to try out this awesome activity, but you can head over to notimeforflashcards.com for detailed instruction and to get the free printable habitat sorting mats 🙂
STEM: Zoo themed STEM challenge
I got the fantastic idea for this activity over at sarajcreations.com. Click on the image to head over to their blog for the full instructions and to download the free printable Challenge Cards..
Zoo Animals Themed Snack Idea
I found the idea for this healthy lion vegetable tray at eatingrichly.com. You will need hummus, carrots, red & yellow peppers and olives. Put these all together as seen in the picture, and enjoy!
Click on the images below to download the Zoo Animals Themed Math & Literacy Centers, Printables and Activities.
