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.!

Click on a button below to view a section.
Use the yellow arrow to return to the top!

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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

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

Featured Plan Activities

Below you’ll find activity ideas featured in our Nocturnal Animals and Day & Night sample plan.

Art & Creativity
Coffee Filter Bats
A preschool bat craft made from coffee filters

Dramatic Play
Nocturnal Animal Sanctuary
Explore the nighttime world of nocturnal animals through imaginative play, caring for stuffed creatures, and role-playing as animal rescuers in this engaging preschool dramatic play activity designed to enhance empathy, language skills, and scientific curiosity.

Building & Small World Play
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.

Language and Literacy
Storytime Activity: Nocturnal & Diurnal Animal Sort
Teach your little ones about diurnal and nocturnal animals with this printable preschool activity! Kids will have fun sorting and categorizing different animals based on their daily habits. Perfect for early learning and science lessons!
Nocturnal Animal Writing Tray
Preschoolers will love exploring the nocturnal world with this engaging writing tray activity! Using colored sand and word wall cards featuring nocturnal animals, children will have fun tracing and writing the names of these creatures. This activity promotes fine motor skills, letter recognition, and early writing skills.

Mathematics
Where is the Bat? 
Help preschoolers learn tricky positional phrases with this engaging mini-book Where is the Bat; featuring a colorful teacher book, student booklet, visual poster, and bats to cut and color.
Fox Ordering by Size
Teach your preschooler about size sequencing with this adorable fox-themed printable activity! They will have a blast ordering the cute foxes from smallest to biggest. Perfect for developing their fine motor skills too! Get your copy now.

Science & Discovery
Flashlight Shadow Matching
Engage your little learners with exciting Shadow Investigations! This preschool-friendly activity will spark curiosity and develop critical thinking skills. Teachers, get ready for a fun-filled adventure in shadow exploration!

Physical Fine Motor
Spider Web Weaving
Weave black yarn to create a spider web for fine motor fun!

Physical Gross Motor
Nocturnal Animal Movements
Get ready to move like your favorite nocturnal animals! In this exciting activity, preschoolers will have a blast practicing different animal movements while pretending to be owls, bats, and more. Not only will they have fun, but they'll also develop gross motor skills as they crawl, flap, and hop around like real nocturnal creatures

Other
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?

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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

Immerse preschoolers in the wonders of a forest at night with this captivating collage activity. Encouraging creativity and fine motor skills, children explore textures and colors while fostering imagination and appreciation for nature. View Member Instructions

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

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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. View Member Instructions
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. ​View Member Instructions

More Nocturnal Animals Theme Preschool Dramatic Play Ideas​

DIY Cave by Kid Frugal

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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. ​View Member Instructions

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. 
View Member Instructions

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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.View Member Instructions

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. View Member Instructions

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. 

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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

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Nocturnal Animal Footprint Match

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

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. View Member Instructions

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

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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! 
View Member Instructions

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

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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. View Member Instructions

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!
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                                  Porcupine Playdough

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

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. 
View Member Instructions

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

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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? 
View Member Instructions

Nocturnal Animal Sort

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

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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. View Member Instructions

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. 

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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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On Sale

On Sale

Where is the Bat Interactive Positional Phrases Mini Book Set

$3.00 $2.00

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Nocturnal Animals Preschool Science Set

$4.00

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Free Forest Bright, Forest Night Pre-K Book Companion

$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

$4.00

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Zoo Dramatic Play Pack

$5.00

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