We have put together a blog with some of our favorite animal themed activities for the animal lover in your life. These are all hands-on, technology free, and F-U-N! Click on the title of any of the ideas below to be linked to full directions. Need to get your hands on a great set of plastic animals? We have linked some nice options here and here.
Cup & Animals
Yes, it's as simple as it sounds.... give your child some plastic cups and animal figurines and let them play however they want. They can make homes, hide animals. build enclosures, the options are endless!
Animal Bridge
Take painter's tape and make a "bridge" between two surfaces inside or outside at your house. Give your child small plastic animals to try and balance on the bridge.
Giraffe ABCs
On a large piece of paper draw a giraffe with a really long neck. Write letters randomly on the neck and circle them. Write those same letters on dot stickers. Give the stickers to your child and have them match them up on the giraffe. Of course, you can switch out the animal for whatever is your child's favorite.
Make a Pet
Print out or draw simple animal outlines for pets. Give your child whatever coloring supplies you have and let them decorate their pet. Water colors are always a favorite for this. If your child is a bit older, they can name their pet and write a story about them.
STEM Animal Structures
Give your child some popsicle sticks, clothespins, and small plastic animals. Challenge them to build some type of structure that they can set the animals on top of. They can also just free play and use the materials to make little homes or a zoo, etc.
Paper Plate Lion by chasing50toes
@chasing50toes shared this cute project on Instagram. Paint a paper plate orange and let it fully dry. Next, draw on a mouth and whiskers with a permanent marker. Glue on googly eyes. Then have your child take scissors and make small cuts all around the edge of the paper plate to make a mane. So cute!
Animal Parade
This is one of the most simple activities but still so fun! Take some chalk and draw a long, curvy line outside on the sidewalk. Have your child take their plastic animals and line them all up on the line for an animal parade!
ABC Fish
Take an old piece of cardboard and cut out a fish outline (or any animal you want). Then, take a permanent marker and write the ABCs all around the edge of the cardboard fish. Make (or buy) clothespins that have the ABCs on then and give them to your child. Have them take the clothespins and clip them on to the matching letter on the cardboard animal. This is a great fine motor activity!
Roll and Spot
This is a fun 2 part activity. Part 1: Paint multiple ladybugs without spots on a large piece of paper. Let those fully dry. Then use a hole punch to punch out lots of black spots (you can also just use a marker). Part 2: math game! Have your child roll a die and put that number of spots on a lady bug. If you want to make it a bit more challenging, use 2 dice and have your child add the numbers together and put that amount on the ladybug.
Play at Home Preschool: Animals
This printable animal unit includes 10 weekdays of EASY to prepare, play-based lesson plans with weekly overviews, supply lists, focus skills, suggested books, and more! These lessons will work on skills necessary to succeed in kindergarten.
Play at Home Preschool: Pets
This printable pets unit includes 10 weekdays of EASY to prepare, play-based lesson plans with weekly overviews, supply lists, focus skills, suggested books, and more! These lessons will work on skills necessary to succeed in kindergarten.
We hope you enjoy these fun and educational animal activities!
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