Zoo Learning Activities for Kids

June 20, 2024 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

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.

Have you read?

Celebrating Mexican Independence Day

Lots of Americans seem to think that May 5 is Mexican Independence Day, but that holiday actually falls on Sept. 16.

May 5 is the celebration of the Battle of Puebla, in which the Mexicans defeated the French in 1862. Independence Day marks the beginning of their fight for independence from Spain in 1810. That was the day of what’s known as El Grito de Dolores, or the cry of Dolores, for when the Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rang the church bells at his church in Dolores and declared that Mexico should be free from Spanish rule.

They would fight for their freedom until 1821 when they finally gained independence.

Fabulous Classroom has a little of the history and ideas for celebrating the holiday for all age groups. There’s also a link to a good video in that post about the real story of Mexican Independence Day.

Twinkl also has a good tops about the history and different activities, discussion ideas, crafts and foods that can be incorporated into lessons at school or used at home.

I also found a few pins that no longer link to a website but include good information on Mexican Independence Day, including some questions for students to answer based on the reading. You can find more printables and questions for kids from TX Homeschool Mama on Etsy (also available in Spanish).

You can find a lot more paid resources about Mexican Independence Day at Teachers Pay Teachers.

Mexican flag crafts are a fun option for celebrating Mexican Independence Day (though the current iteration of their flag has only been in use since 1968). Kids Activities Blog has a free Mexican flag printable and a few different ideas for decorating it including dot markers and torn tissue paper.

You can also find some great Mexican crafts at Red Ted Art. The post includes all sorts of Mexican inspired projects including Day of the Dead crafts, Frida Kahlo pinatas and upcycled musical instruments. I love the giant paper flowers they shared from Honestly WTF.

Have you read?

Leave a Reply