Zoo Themed Activities for Toddlers & Preschoolers

If you’ve been looking for a fun way to incorporate the zoo theme in your homeschool, look no further. Below, I share different ways to get your young children engaged in learning about all things zoo with a combination of lesson plans, themed activities, picture books, and more! If your kids love the Zoo as much as mine, you don’t want to miss the free Going to the Zoo Tot & PreK-K Pack (at the end of this post)! Considering pairing it with the Going to the Zoo Emergent Readers I previously shared and you will have a fun little unit for the Tots and Preschoolers in your home!

Why use themed activities?

When it comes to putting together lessons for little learners, you want them to revolve around their natural environment and fun activities. Also, if you’re homeschooling older kids, it’s nice to be able to include a few things for them as well. Doing themed activities, or unit studies is the perfect way to do this. These types of activities also make it easier to pull together a variety of resources. Between board books, plastic animals, and zoo animals printables, you won’t find a shortage of things to do with your preschoolers and younger toddlers.

Zoo Theme Activities and Ideas

As I mentioned earlier, there are quite a few things you can do with themed activities, but especially zoo-related. Here are a few topics to consider studying with your little learners:

• favorite animals
• different animals
• farm animals
• local zoo
• brown bear
• polar bears
• tall giraffes
• pink flamingos
• animal tracks
• different habitats
• zoo keeper
• and more!

These are plenty to help get you started. While doing searching through these topics, you may be wondering, “Is my child really learning?” The answer is a big YES! Although you may be looking to cross every “t” and dot every “i”, your kids are always learning. 

Developmental Skills Kids Learn through Zoo Themed Activities

Since most activities for younger kids typically involve LOTS of hands-on resources and experiments, your kids will almost always use their fine motor skills. Working with brown paint to color a bear or using glue sticks to paste together animals’ tails on construction paper are just a few examples of how they are fostering skills without much thought. 

Zoo Themed Activity Ideas

Looking for some activities to do with your toddlers and preschoolers? Besides the free pack I have for you below, here are a few more ideas to consider working into your lesson plans:

• zoo themed activities with paper plates
• use index cards to write different animal names on them (then paste a picture of the animal on the other side)
• create zoo animal cards
• set up a science table with small toy zoo animals
• make zoo animal snacks with cream cheese and peanut butter
• make time for zoo sensory play
• use googly eyes and pipe cleaners to create different animals
• have a pretend play time and act out different zoo animals

Also, don’t forget to visit your local library and take a field trip to a local zoo (or the nearest one to you). Some locations may celebrate zoo week and offer a variety of animal science lessons.

Free Going to the Zoo Tot & Pre-K Pack

This pack is packed with 31 pages of activities. The Tot/PreK Pack includes:

• Wall Word Cards
• Prewriting Practice
• Clip Cards
• Letter coloring page
• Beginning Sounds
• Word tracing
• Read, Trace, Build Write pages
• 3-part cards
• What comes next? sequencing practice
• Which one is different?
• Patterning practice
• Graph and Roll game
• Puzzles
• Dot Marker Pages

Use it in conjunction with my other Going to the Zoo printables, or just use them as a fun-day project! Don’t miss all my other Tot Packs and Emergent Readers!!

Zoo-Themed Books

The View At The ZooIf I Ran the Zoo (Classic Seuss)Dear Zoo: A Lift-the-Flap BookGood Night, GorillaPut Me in the Zoo (I can read it all by myself’ Beginner Books)I Want To Be A Zookeeper1, 2, 3 to the Zoo: A Counting BookTabbed Board Books: My First Zoo: Let’s Meet the Animals! (My First Tabbed Board Book)The Zoo: A 4D Book (A Visit to…)The Pajama Zoo Parade: The Funniest Bedtime ABC Book (The Funniest ABC Books)Ibaby: Zoo FacesTreasure Hunt: At the Zoo: A Fold-Out Book

Download the Zoo Tot & PreK-K Pack

Whether you visit the zoo often or you’re taking your kids for the first time, your little ones are sure to love working through this adorable Going to the Zoo pack. It includes prewriting exercises, puzzles, do-a-dot pages, early math, pre-reading exercises and more!

To download the Going to the Zoo Tot & PreK-K pack, simply add it to your cart below and checkout. **Upon completion, you will be added to my Weekly Newsletter list.**