Preschool Nocturnal Animals and Day & Night Theme

Below you can find tons of fun and engaging preschool Nocturnal Animal Activities sorted by learning domain.
Pick and choose the activities for your lesson, download a free copy of our Free Nocturnal Animals Preschool Lesson Plan, and combine our coordinating Nocturnal Animals Resources
to save even more time planning your lessons.!
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Planning your Nocturnal Animals and Day & Night Theme

Club Members can access all of our Nocturnal Animals activities and their Theme Planning Guide for free!
Not a member? Learn More Here

Download a free sample Nocturnal Animals and Day & Night Preschool Lesson Plan!

Coffee Filter Bats

Create the cute little bats using a simple process with everyday materials! Check out the full set of instructions on my Bat Craft blog post. 

Create Owl Puppets

Set out brown paper bags and a variety of shape cutouts for children to create their own owl puppet. 
After each child has a puppet learn this 5 Little Owls chant and use the puppets while singing. 

A Forest at Night Collage

Member Sheena W share this photo of a forest at night college her kids made. They used deco mesh tubing for the trunk, glued on fake leaves and a bat and then googly eyes. 

More Nocturnal Animals Art & Craft Ideas from Around the Web

Paper Plate Fox from Glued to my Crafts
Animals at Night Craft from Green Kids Crafts
Bats & Nocturnal Animals From Metamora Community PreK
Handprint Owl from My Bright Firefly
6 Nocturnal Animal Crafts from Green Kids Crafts

Nocturnal Animal Sanctuary

Add signs and props to your dramatic play stand to create a nocturnal animal sanctuary. Provide animal figurines or stuffed animals, or even printed photos of nocturnal animals. Children can use boxes as the habitats for each animal. 
Support children in finding out what each animal needs for their habitat. 

Spider Exhibit

Set up a spider exhibit for preschoolers to explore through play!

Bat Cave

Turn your dramatic play area into a batcave by building a fort or you can bring in a small tent to cover with a black sheet. Incorporate flashlights as well, the kids will love this one. ​

More Nocturnal Animals Theme Preschool Dramatic Play Ideas​

DIY Cave by Kid Frugal

Nocturnal Animal Small World Play

Include pictures of dens, caves, spider webs and hollow nests. You can bring in loose parts like leaves, sticks, and bark pieces with nocturnal animals to enhance their block building. ​

                                             Build a Cave

Challenge preschoolers to build a cave of any size out of blocks of their choice! 
After building encourage children to describe their structures and why it works for the animal they designed it for. 

Storytime Activity:
Nocturnal & Diurnal Animal Sort

Learn some of the animals that are nocturnal and diurnal by reading the book Forest Bright, Forest Night ​ by Jennifer Ward and then engage in this free sorting activity from PKPF. 

Nocturnal Animal Writing Tray 

Using colored sand and a nocturnal animal word wall cards to have the child practice writing in the tray

Bat Alphabet First Sounds Puzzles

These adorable little bats are great companions for supporting preschoolers in learning letter identification, uppercase/lowercase matching, and first sounds!
Find this activity inside my Nocturnal Animals Day and Night Activity Pack!

Little Owl's Night Book Activity

Read Little Owl’s Night and create your own owl body: Use a waffle for the body, and some fun sliced fruit for wings and facial features. Such a fun activity to go with a book.

Time to Rhyme!

This cute little racoon is the perfect host for rhyming with your preschooler. Included in my ​Nocturnal Animals Day and Night Activity Pack!

Flashlight Letter Search

Tape letters on the walls or use environmental print for this activity. Give each child a flashlight and turn out the lights. Search the room for letters using the flashlights. 

Nocturnal Animal Puzzles

Build words while assembling these little animal puzzles! Fantastic for letter recognition and learning that letters can be combined to form words. Included in my Nocturnal Animals Day and Night Activity Pack!

Flashlight Pre-K Book Companion

The book Flashlight by Lizi Boyd is a great book to read aloud to preschoolers and has fantastic illiustrations!
Our Flashlight Pre-K Book Companion includes a carefully crafted book companion and engaging game providing a hands-on and educational experience for young learners

Faces of the Moon Storytime Activity

The book Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin is a great book to read along with this theme and a fun way to learn about the phases of the moon. 
Pre-K Printable Fun Club Members log in to download a member exclusive activity to compliment this book. Not a member? Learn more. 
After Dark: Poems About Nocturnal Animals 
by David L Harrison
Nocturnal Animals
by Abby Dunne
Forest Bright Forest Night
by Jennifer Ward
Flashlight
by Lizi Boyd

Nocturnal Animal Footprint Match

Print out photographs of nocturnal animals and the tracks they make. Invite your preschoolers to try and match them up!

Cave Number Mats

Learn to identify numbers in a variety of ways! Match up the number represented as a number, number word, fingers, and ten frame. 
Included in my ​Nocturnal Animals Day and Night Activity Pack!

How Many Bats in the Cave?

Place different amounts of black pompoms inside brown paper bags. Have the child remove the pompoms and count how many are in each bag.

Counting Eyes at Night

This mat is perfect to pair with googly eyes for fine motor and math fun!
Identify the number on the owl card be reading the number, number word, or counting up the dots in the ten frame. Then add googly eyes to the counting mat!
Included in the Nocturnal Animals Day and Night Activity Pack!

Where is the Bat? 

Support preschoolers in learning positional phrases with this mini-book! This Where is the Bat? Positional Phrases Activity comes in color or B&W

Owl Adaptation Game

Pretend to be an owl and learn about adaptations with this activity from my Nocturnal Animals Science Set. ​

Night Play dough

Create an invitation to build play dough tray with black play dough, googly eyes, bat or spider cookie cutters. Invite the child to create their own nocturnal animal.

Flashlight Shadow Matching

This activity is an easy and engaging way to add science to your lessons this week. See the details on my Shadows Exploration blog post. 

Nocturnal Animals Read & Respond

Learn more about nocturnal animals with these read and respond cards! Engage preschoolers in conversation to learn more about elusive nighttime creatures. Included in my Nocturnal Animals Science Set. ​

Black Bat Sensory Bin

A sensory bin with dyed rice is perfect for this theme! Find out all the details for dying rice and how we created this mini sensory bin inside a "bat cave" over on our Black Bat Sensory Bin blog post!

Animals at Night Sensory Bin

Create this fun sensory bin using a base of black beans, wooden trees, nocturnal animal figures, and glow in the dark stars!

Sense of Sound

Some nocturnal animals rely on their sense of sound to get around in the darkness. 
Challenge your preschoolers to explore sound with this game. 
Sit outdoors with your group, or try this game during a walk. 
At random intervals signal children to stop and listen, each time have them listen for something different: loudest sound, quietest sound, something far away, something unfamiliar and then encourage each person to share what they heard. 

More Nocturnal Animal Theme Science & Discovery Preschool Ideas

Nocturnal Animal Sensory Tubs from Fun365
Flying Bat STEM Challenge from The Educators Spin on It

Spider Web Weaving

For this activity you will need a paper plate and white yarn. Cut little triangular notches around the paper plate, these will help hold the yarn in place as children wrap it around the plate. 
Cut a long piece of white yarn and tape one end to the center of the plate. Then invite children to wrap the yarn across the plate resting the yarn in the notches as they go. 

2D Shape Hunt Gross Motor Game

Hunt up some learning fun with this gross motor learning game! Slip on the mouse hat and hunt high and low for the hidden cheese shapes then scurry to tuck them away in your hiding place. 
Nocturnal Animals Day and Night Activity Pack!
​

                                  Porcupine Playdough

Create a porcupine out of play dough and then stick toothpicks in it for the spines. 

Mini Play Dough Task Cards

Work on fine motor skills and creative thinking by creating nocturnal animals out of play dough. Included in the ​Nocturnal Animals Day and Night Activity Pack!

Owl and Opossum Game

Have a conversation about how opossum’s are great at tricking their predators because they play dead. In a large space you can play a game where some students are the owls and others are opossums, have them play dead when their predator comes.

Bats Are Sleeping Fingerplay

Try adding this fun Bats Are Sleeping fingerplay to your activities this week.

More Nocturnal Animal Theme  Physical Motor Preschool Ideas

Nocturnal Animals Badger from My Bright Firefly
Golf Tee Porcupine from Green Kid Crafts

Nocturnal Animals in my Community

Learn about the animals that live in your community. Determine which are nocturnal and which are diurnal. 
If you have family or friends that live far away ask them about the animals that live in their community, are they different? the same?

Nocturnal Animal Sort

Gather pictures of various animals and have the child sort the nocturnal animals into one category.

Bats Are Sleeping Fingerplay

Try adding this fun Bats Are Sleeping  fingerplay to your activities this week. 

Community Engagement

Find out if there are any local organizations that work with nocturnal animals in your area. Perhaps there is a zoo or animal sanctuary or even animal control that can come and speak about the nocturnal animals that live in your community. 

Racoon Calendar Cards

The racoon number cards included with the PKPF Fall Calendar Cards set is perfect for coordinating your calendar and math activities with this theme. 

Family Engagement

Communicate your upcoming theme with enrolled families. 
Sharing about the theme in your program newsletter is a great way for families to understand what their children are learning and expand on the focus at home. 

Nocturnal Animal Display

Print out (or cut out) B&W images of nocturnal animals, these should be a full-page with one large image on each page. Send home a different animal with each family. Encourage them to decorate the animal at home in any way they choose and then send back to school to display. As a fun extension encourage each family to learn and share a fact about the animal with the class. 
This is a great first introduction to completing projects at home and sharing at school. This is becoming a kinder requirement in many places. 

Assessment Opportunity

This week offers several opportunities for assessing children naturally as they engage in offered experiences. Here are a few suggestions:
  • Math: Classify, sort, & compare based on a common quality (Nocturnal/Diurnal Animal Sorting)
  • Language & Literacy: I use new vocabulary  (nocturnal and diurnal
  • Science & Discovery: I use my senses to explore ​(Sense of Sound activity)

Library: Field Trip Idea

Take a trip your local library. Ask a librarian to put together some books all about nocturnal animals for your preschooler. Many libraries will happily provide this service! They also often have knowledge of community resources related to a variety of topics. This is a great opportunity to teach your preschooler how valuable these community workers are!

Evening Observation: At Home Idea

Sit in your backyard in the evening and use your senses to discover what nocturnal animals might be active near your home. 

Shop for Nocturnal Animals Day & Night Products from Pre-K Printable Fun:

Nocturnal Animals Day and Night Preschool Activities

$7.00
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Where is the Bat? Interactive Positional Phrases Mini Book Set

$2.00
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Nocturnal Animals Preschool Science Set

$4.00
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Nocturnal vs. Diurnal Animals Sorting Mat

$0.00
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Animal Winter Homes

$3.00
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Zoo Preschool Activity Pack

$7.00
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Animals Sorting and Classifying Mats

$4.00
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Fall Calendar Display and Calendar Games

$3.50
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Flashlight Pre-K Book Companion

$3.00
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Zoo Dramatic Play Pack

$5.00
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Learning Centers

Preschool Learning Centers are commonly referred to as Preschool Centers, or Learning Spaces. These are activity areas dedicated to a specific type of of play and exploring a variety of topics and activities. Download our Free set of Center Signs!