Zoo Learning Activities for Kids

Summer seems like the perfect time to think about (or visit!) the zoo, but it’s great to add in a zoo-themed unit or a fun zoo day or week any time of year. Here are some fun printables, activities and other ideas for kids to do related to the zoo.

First off, if you are actually planning a zoo visit, I found several zoo scavenger hunt printables you might want to check out:

You could even find pictures of the zoo animals to print out and do a scavenger hunt at home if you’re not heading to the zoo right away. Or check out these other zoo themed activities and printables you can use at home.

Homeschool Preschool has printable writing worksheets with zoo animals like dolphins and monkeys. ABCs of Literacy has lots of great zoo themed activities, including a beginning sounds bingo game, syllable sort and color by letter, to name a few.

You’ll also find lots of great stuff at Parenting Chaos, such as printable zoo STEM challenge cards, two-piece animal puzzles and habitat clip cards (there is a charge for their activities or they have a membership that gets you access to tons of resources).

At Homeschool Share you can find cute count and clip cards with a zoo theme, as well as a roll and cover dice game.

Confidence Meets Parenting has some fun zoo jokes for kids (my favorite: what kind of snake would you find on a car? A windshield viper!) Coffee and Carpool has a super cute set of A to Z animal alphabet pages that’s also a story about how the animals are kind to each other (like elephant makes sure everyone gets invited).

If you have small beads that are shaped like animals (if not you can get them here) you can play this animal counting game for preschoolers from The Educators’ Spin on It.

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Zoo Themed Activities for Kids

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

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Have you read?

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