Preschool Zoo Activities and Lesson Planning Ideas

​There is so much to explore at the Zoo! In this fun theme children will learn all about a wide variety of animals and the habitats they live in.  This is a great opportunity to talk about the importance of taking care of those around us (people and animals alike) and our world. 

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Free Zoo Preschool Theme Map

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Create Zoo Animals with Clay 

Invite your preschoolers to manipulate clay to shape their favorite zoo animal. 
Clay is a great tool to support children as they develop the muscles needed to write later on. While engaging with clay children can learn basic skills such as rolling a ball by placing a small piece of clay between their palms, rolling snakes, and pounding the clay with their fists. They can then take these shapes and put them together to create a favorite zoo animal, or even an animal from their imagination. 

This week in your art center add fun Animal Stencils, Scrapbook paper with animal prints, old magazines about animals (National Geographic Kids or Ranger Rick JR. ), craft sticks (for creating animal habitats) and modeling clay for creating animals. 

​Make animal Masks

• Materials: paper plates, markers or crayons, variety of collage materials, large mirror or small handheld mirrors, and elastic
• Preparation: Cut out two eye holes in each plate. Poke a hole in each side of the paper plates and attach the elastic (this could also be done upon completion, however children may be anxious to try out their masks and may want to try them on through the process). 
• Procedure: Consider using a book to lead into this activity. The book My Visit to the Zoo by Aliki shows all kinds of zoo animals. After the activity, encourage children to discuss which animal they like to see when visiting the zoo. Talk about the invitation to create animal masks that you have set up. Talk about which animal(s) they would like to create and the materials they think they may need, retrieve extra materials as needed prior to introducing the activity. While they are creating, encourage them to talk about their animal, do they know what the animal eats? what kind of habitat they thrive in? what sound they make? 
• Follow-Up: Have the children wear their masks during a fun game of Simon Says or to pretend to be different animals during free play.
• Assessment Opportunity and Parent Engagement: Take a picture of each child wearing their mask to post on a parent display, along with the photograph take a quote from the child saying why they chose that animal. Add both to the child's portfolio. This will be an example of the child's interest, oral language skills, and creativity. Have them write their name on the bottom of the anecdote for a writing sample as well. 

​Create 3D Animals

• Materials: Variety of clean recycled materials such as paper towel tubes, milk cartons, milk caps, yarn, newspaper, small plastic bottles, food cans (with safe edges on tops), and food boxes. Markers, glue, scissors, and tape. 
• Introduction: This would be a great time to explore a fun Pop-up book about animals. While reading the book you can talk to the children about how the pop-up book looks different from a regular book, invite children to talk about the differences. Tell children they are going to have an opportunity to create their own 3-d art.  
• Procedure: Be sure that all materials are clean and safe for use by children. Organize the materials on a table near the place where children will be working. Invite children to explore the materials. Encourage them to make a plan before they begin, some children work better just jumping in-it's important to allow them to create how they would like. You can talk to children about what their next step will be as they are creating. 
• Consider having a place available where children can put their art if they want to come back to work on it the next day. They may need more time or want some of it to dry before moving on. 
• Follow-up: Students may be interested in extending this activity by creating a habitat for their animal from a box. 
• Assessment opportunity: Pay attention to how children use scissors, how they grip writing tools, and how much glue/tape they are using for this project. Record results on post-its to transfer to their assessment pages later. 

If I Were at the Zoo

Take photos of the children's faces and print. Give each child their photo, allow them to glue onto a large piece of paper. Encourage them to add a body (they can add an animal body or draw their own body, it's up to them!). Next they can add a story about what they would do if they were in a zoo. 

​Animal Covering Prints

​This art exploration is such a fun way to incorporate art process into a zoo theme. We have all the details for how to do this craft on our  Animal Print Roller Stamps blog post. 

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Suggested Items to add to your Dramatic Play Area for a Zoo Theme

Add Animal Masks, and Costumes to your Dramatic Play Space this week. Consider creating a Zoo in your space with Animal Habitats, and Stuffed Animals. Add plenty of "Zoo Keeper" Dress up items and props. Some Ideas Include : Safari Hats, Rubber Boots, Vests, Buckets, Gloves, and Nets. The Children can practice caring for and feeding the Animals in their Zoo.  Add Animal Signs to this space to encourages literacy.

Zoo Dramatic Play*

Suggested Materials: Signs for the zoo, stuffed animals, small animal figures, cube shelves or boxes for habitats, pretend food for the animals, safari costumes for staff, checklists, tickets, exhibit signs, zoo map, attractions list, veterinarian station, and clip boards for checklists. 

Club Member Cassandra of Mud pies and Butterflies created this adorable Zoo in her dramatic play space using the Zoo Dramatic Play pack from Pre-K Printable Fun.

Zoo Themed Puppet Show

Make zoo animal puppets  and invite them to create stories with the zoo animals.

Zoo Animal Dress Up

Put out costumes of different animals and have students dress up and act like they are the animals at the zoo.

​Backyard Zoo

Create a zoo in your backyard! Set up exhibits using stuffed animals and plastic animal figures. Use signs and props included in the Zoo Dramatic Play activity pack to easily set up your invitation to play.
Invite family over to engage in play too!

Zoo Animal Charades

   Play animal charades as a group.
Have a child act out a zoo animal and the other children guess what kind of animal they are.

Zoo Theme Construction, blocks and small world play

Zoo Animal Habitats

Create an invitation to build Zoo habitats in your Construction Space this week. In addition to blocks, add Zoo Animals, Different Color Felt to create landscapes, Greenery, Twigs, Popsicle Sticks, Rocks, photos of animal habitats,  and Books about animals.
As children are building their habitats ask questions to support the project, ​"Camels live in a dry, hot climate, where do you think they might live? Why?"

​Create a Small World Zoo

Place some simple props such as zoo animals, plants, assortment of blocks, people, and signs included in the Zoo Dramatic Play Pack in your block center to inspire your preschoolers to create a small world zoo!
See the Create a Small World Zoo to see more images of our invitation and how to create these miniature signs!. 

Build Animals with Blocks

Provide Students with a variety of blocks, and building materials.
Add a variety of photos, and encourage students to build animals.

Animal Towers

Place pieces of tape on the wall to represent the heights of different zoo animals (or their babies) and challenge children to make towards as tall as each animal.

Re-Tell Your Favorite Zoo Story

Place a variety of your favorite zoo books, along with plastic zoo animals and props on a small table. Invite students to retell their favorite stories out stories and create their own using the props.

*Zoo First Sounds Clip Cards

Practice phoneme recognition with these Zoo Animal First Sounds clip cards from the Zoo Preschool Activity Pack from PKPF

​5 Little Monkeys

Read the book, 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed (or one of the many variations available) to your group. 

•  Add felt materials to your felt board for retelling this story. If you do not have a felt board 5 Little Monkeys set you can create them by printing bed and monkey images, laminating, and gluing to felt or velcro. Invite children to create their own versions of this story using monkeys or even other animals too. 
• Variation: print bed and monkey images and attach to magnets for use with a magnet board. 
• Extension: Use this story to start a discussion about safety. What happened when the monkeys jumped on the bed? Where might they be able to jump that is safer? Jumping is fun, where do you jump that is safe?

​Animal Alphabet Sort

• Materials: Large letters (these can be printed on paper and laminated, stuffed letters, decals....they just need to be big enough to be easily seen) in uppercase or lowercase or both! (whichever your approach is for your classroom), a large variety of animal figures. 
• Procedure:  Place the letters around the room with space for a small pile of animals near each letter. Place the animals in a large basket and have the children sit around the basket. Have a brief discussion about animals and the alphabet, perhaps read a fun A-Z Animals book! Next, invite the children to sort the animals in the basket based on the letter they start with. Provide support as needed, when children ask what letter an animal starts with ask them to say the animal with you, focusing on the beginning sound. Support them as they figure out which letter the animal begins with. 
• Note- When children are sorting they may make some mistakes, keep in mind they may be misidentifying the animal or have another name for an animal. For example they may have a dog under letter P for puppy. or they may have a tiger under C for Cat. 
• Assessment- This is an excellent opportunity to assess their understanding of phonics and letter recognition. If possible, have another adult available or record the session for assessing. You can also have a closing session where the children tell which animals they sorted and why. 

Zebra Stripes Color Sight Words

Work on color recognition and literacy development with this activity. This activity has two levels of play. Use the colored color words to work on matching up color words to the same color zebra. Or use the black color words to encourage children to use phoneme recognition or sight word recognition. 
Included in our Zoo Preschool Activity Pack.

Zoo Animal 20 Questions

   Encourage language skills by playing Zoo Animal 20 Questions. Think of a zoo animal and have students ask yes or no questions to help them figure out which animal you are.

Zoo Animal 3-Step Directions

Practice 3-step directions. Give three directions for children to carry out, children listen to all the directions and then carry them out. "First, roar like a lion. Then, jump like a kangaroo. Next, slither like a snake" (also great for motor development, be ready to jot down notes for assessment).

Zoo Stories

Invite children to dictate a story about a zoo,
they can create a picture and then dictate a story to an adult to record.

Dramatic Play Writing

  Supply clipboards and paper for children to practice writing while engaging in Zoo Dramatic Play activities.

Zoo Scavenger

If you take a trip to a zoo be sure to include a zoo scavenger hunt for children to engage in. If you're not taking a trip to a zoo, consider setting up a pretend one in your classroom!

I Want to Be a Zookeeper Book Companion

Our I Want to be a Zookeeper Book Companion pack is a great addition to your literacy activities during this theme! This pack compliments the book I Want to be a Zookeeper by Dan Liebman.
Included in this pack are a Book Review, Extension activity ideas, vocabulary and discussion questions as well as a printable zookeeper game.
Note: This pack is a members exclusive, members please get your free download here in the shop listing or on the members dashboard.

Members get this in our shop!

Read Marianne Berkes Books

Marianne Berkes is an author of children's books that has some great books that involve rhyming, numeral recognition, and counting aloud. These books are a lot of fun and they have the added benefit of discussing different animal features and habitats as well. These books are great for this theme and all year round, a must for any early childhood classroom.      
Over in the Jungle
Over in the Ocean
Way Out in the Desert
Over in the Grasslands
Over in the Forest
Over in Australia 
Over in a River
Over in the Arctic

When learning all about the Zoo be sure to include plenty of fiction books as well as non-fiction. There are so many fun fiction books that you can include in your reading center this week. Good Night Gorilla is a fun book that will be sure to elicit giggles from your bunch. I Want to be a Zookeeper is an excellent book to read before introducing a Zoo Dramatic Play invitation!

Z is for Zookeeper by Marie Smith
Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann
If Anything Ever Goes Wrong at the Zoo by Mary Jean Hendrick
My Visit to the Zoo by Aliki
I Want to be a Zookeeper by Dan Liebman
Put Me in the Zoo by Robert Lopshire
Curious George Goes to the Zoo by H. A. Rey
Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
A Trip to the Zoo by Karen Wallace

*Feed the Animals Game

Count up dinner for the animals in the zoo! 
Children enhance counting and sorting skills while engaging in this activity included in the  Zoo Preschool Activity Pack from PKPF. 

Zoo Number Puzzles

Invite your preschooler to work on number ordering skills! 
Scramble the pieces, then put in numerical order to discover which animal is in the puzzle. This puzzle, and one other, are included in the  Zoo Preschool Activity Pack from PKPF. ​

Measure & Compare Animals

Find out the different lengths that some zoo animals will grow to be. Invite children to use counting cubes or measuring tape to compare the different lengths. Leave the measuring tape or counting cubes on the ground, then encourage the children to lay next to them to see how they measure up to their favorite animals! 
This is a great opportunity to practice and assess use of measurement terms such as bigger than, smaller than, inches, feet, large, small and more.

Animal Patterns and Counting

There are a lot of math learning opportunities to be had when exploring animals. Be sure to take the time to talk about patterns on animals, and count stripes or spots.
    Place spots and stripes on the walls of the classroom or hide them around your classroom. Children can count the ones they see on the walls or collect them from around the classroom to collect, count, and possibly create!

Jungle Animal Sorters

Use Jungle Animal Sorters for a variety of activities in the classroom! Invite students to sort them based on their habitat, skin coverings, what they eat, and more!

Zoo Animal Feet

Collect a variety of plastic animals that represent those that can be found at the zoo, be sure to include both 2 and 4 legged varieties. Randomly pull out two animals. Have the children count up how many feet/legs on each and then count them all up together. Repeat, if students really catch on begin adding more animals or even try subtracting.

Science, Sensory, and STEM Zoo Theme activity Ideas

​Sort and Classify Animals

Preschoolers will love the activities in our Sort & Classify Animals activity pack.
​Invite children to sort animals based on habitat, mode of transportation, number of legs, the sounds they make, types of feet, and their coverings. 

Explore Animal Patterns 

Use this Zoo Animal Coverings Matching activity from our Zoo Activity Pack to practice matching animals with their patterns . A fun activity for exploring different animal patterns, colors, and types!

​Make a Zebra Pattern

• Materials: Book about zebras such as Lots and Lots of Zebra Stripes. Black paper plates or paper, white paper plates or paper, glue sticks, black construction paper, white construction paper, and child appropriate scissors. Invite children to cut stripes from. An index card with facts about zebra stripes written on it (or just have them in mind if you have a great memory).
• Procedure: Read a book about zebra stripes. Ask children if they think zebras are white with black stripes or black with white stripes. Listen to their responses and support their discussion. When they give their responses ask them to explain why they think that and record their answers. Next, invite children to choose either a black base or a white base. Then they can use scissors to cut out stripes from paper in the other color. Next, they can glue the stripes onto their base paper. Once the projects are complete bring the children back together for a closing discussion. Talk about how some scientists believe that zebras are white with black stripes because they have a white underbelly, while other scientists have determined they are black with white stripes because they have dark skin.

Animal Habitat Slide & Find

Use this printable game to learn a little about where animals live! 
Pull the strip to change the animal for each habitat. What lives in the Savannah? A polar bear? Toucan? These little puzzles include numbers for self-correcting. 
You can find this set in the  Zoo Preschool Activity Pack pack from PKPF. 

Light Table X-ray

   Explore animal x-rays on the light table.

Zoo Cams

    View live zoo cams like these from the San Diego Zoo.

*Zoo Movement Activity

Use animals as inspiration to get little bodies moving!
Flip a card and challenge children to move like that animal. These cards are ​included in the  Zoo Preschool Activity Pack from PKPF. ​​

Zoo Pre-cutting/Writing Practice

Preschoolers need lots of practice learning to follow a line! Use this printable included in the  Zoo Preschool Activity Pack from PKPF to encourage preschoolers to follow a variety of lines from left to right using a marker, then for an extra challenge invite them to cut across the line with scissors. 
Alternative Play: Provide zoo mini erasers and encourage children to place them on the lines. 

Zoo Animal Freeze Dance

Play a fun variation of freeze dance

• Materials: Fun kids music, large photos of zoo animals 
• Procedure: Play music, randomly stop the music-when the music stops children land on a photo of an animal, then they act like that animal. 
• Variation: With each stop of the music give a specific instruction "Make a sound like your animal", "Move like your animal", "State a fact about your animal", "What letter does your animal start with"

Play Dough Animal Habitats

 Add craft sticks into the play dough center for children to create animal habitats out of.

Zoo Blocks

Interlocking blocks, such as LEGO Duplo, are excellent for fine motor development. This week add some zoo themed interlocking blocks such as this one.

Animal Obstacle Course

You can challenge children with a fun obstacle course that they complete while pretending to be a particular animal "Do you think it's easier to complete this course as a human, lion, or snake?"

Zoo Cage Transfer-Fine Motor

Set up a container filled with plastic zoo animals along with smaller containers or cardboard boxes to act as the cages in a zoo. Label each small container with the picture of a zoo animal. Have children use tongs, tweezers, or a spoon to pick up each animal from the bin and deliver to their appropriate enclosure.

Feeding Time at the Zoo-Fine Motor

Gather several oatmeal containers, coffee containers or other round containers with plastic lids. Cut a slit in the top. Decorate each lid to look like a different animal's face, lining the slit up with the animal's mouth. Give children laminated cards with pictures of different types of food (or you can just use playing cards if you want!) and have them feed the animals by putting it through the slit in the top of the container. You can mix this fine motor practice with math skills but having children roll a dice to determine how many pieces of food to feed each animal.

Zoo Animal Yoga

Have children participate in zoo animal themed yoga poses.
For example the yoga pose "cat" could be called "lion" pose for this activity.

Zookeeper Relay

Break children into two groups. Give each group a bucket. The person with the bucket must fill it up with "food" for the animals (you can use balls, rocks, sand, etc.) then run down to the other end and put it in the animal's food dish (a larger container that they group will need to fill up). They then run back and hand off the bucket to the next member in their group. Play continues until each group has filled the animal's food dish. You can make this game even more fun, by having your children dress up like zookeepers!

Zoo Animal Finger plays and Movement Activities

Learn a variety of finger plays that feature zoo animals. such as 5-little monkey's or this one from Measured Mom using the tune of Wheels on the Bus. Try these Zoo Movement activities from Dr. Jean

​Animals Around the World

During this theme there are a lot of natural opportunities to talk about the world we live in! You can include talking about a variety of climates, habitats, and geographic locations. Be sure to point out these things when engaging in activities with the children. Take special note of any locations and topics of interest for further study. 

Animal Habitats Outside

• Invite children to help set up small world animal habitats outside, setting them up outside is a great opportunity to include water and other natural elements in the habitats. Include animals for each habitat. Children can learn so much about the world they live in with these little habitats. Engage in play (if invited) to support their knowledge of these habitats using descriptive language and rich vocabulary. Engage in discussion about where in the world each animal might live.
  • Suggested vocabulary: temperature, moderate, adaptation, erosion, barren, temperate, species, ecosystem, climate, monsoon, tropical, shore, barrier reef, tide, savanna, marsh, tundra, and glacier. 
  • **Teacher Tip: Hang index cards with these vocabulary words near where you have set up invitations to explore them. 

​Take a Field Trip

Plan a field trip to the zoo! This can be done in a variety of ways depending on your learning program. You can plan a visit to a local zoo (if you have a group be sure to call and let them know you are coming so they can plan for special accommodations), invite a zookeeper to the program to talk about their work, or use a virtual field trip like this one from PBS Kid Vision.

More Social Studies Ideas:

• Many zoos have live cam feeds that can be viewed. Screen these in advance and show to children, talk about the different habitats that can be seen. 

Belonging

As children learn more about zoos they can learn about how zookeepers work to create habitats for animals that make them feel more at home. Find some photos of zoo habitats, local if possible, and invite children to examine the habitats and pick out differences in how they look from one another as well as the area you live in. 
For example: Gorillas may have a habitat with a lot of trees & greenery and a Rhino habitat is likely to have muddy areas and less greenery. Ask children why they think each habitat looks different. 
Engage in discussion about how zookeepers work to make animals feel like they belong in the setting. Ask children about what helps them feel safe and comfortable in the classroom or when in a new environment. Invite them to come up with ideas they can implement to make everyone feel a sense of belonging in the classroom. 

​Animal Feelings 

Just like people, animals express their emotions in many different ways! 
Invite children to practice expressing their emotions while pretending to be different animals. Which animal makes them think of being calm? angry? sad? and invite them to act out those feelings (in a safe way) like those animals might. 
Make some observations, then create a poster for your calm down space using the suggested animals. The images can give children a visual to refer to when they are having big feelings. 

Play a Game Together: Animal Race Roll & Play*

Engage in a fun non-competitive animal racing game. Take turns rolling the playing cube and moving the animal shown, which animal will reach the finish line first? Play independently or with a partner!
This game is ​included in our  Zoo Preschool Activity Pack

EDUCATOR RESOURCES : CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT, AND  PARENT ENGAGEMENT

Invite Parents with Animal Work Backgrounds

Ask parents if any of them have experience working with animals and if they would like to come to the classroom for a class discussion.

Family Zoo Night

Have the children help transform the classroom into a zoo. Have them draw posters for the zoo, consider having each child set up their own exhibit. Host a family zoo night where families come into the zoo to experience the exhibits. Children can share the information they learned during the Zoo theme study.

Zoo Trip Photos

    Ask parents to send pictures of a visit they made to their zoo to class with their student. Give students an opportunity to talk about their trip to the zoo.

Zoo Photo Book

Create your very own Family Zoo Photo Book by compiling photos from zoo trips and photos shared by family. Do some research on the animals in the photographs to include in the book. Print photos along with research information to place in the book or create a lesson in technology and invite children to help you create a photo book online.  Ask family members that live far away to talk about (Send) unique animals that live near them. Children living in cold climates would love to hear about animals like scorpions, tarantulas, and gila monsters from relatives that live dry warm climates. 

Zoo Preschool Activity Pack

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Zoo Dramatic Play Pack

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Animals Sorting and Classifying Mats

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Color Cut And Paste a Scene

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I want to be a Zookeeper Pre-K Book Companion (Members only)

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