Zoo Themed Activities for Kids

I read that July 1 is American Zoo Day, but any time is a good time to talk about, learn about and act like zoo animals. Even if a visit to an actual zoo isn’t in your plan for this year, having a zoo day or zoo week at home or at school is a fun way to mix things up and incorporate some animal-related fun.

There are so many great ideas out there for things you can do with kids related to zoo animals, but here are a bunch to get you started!

First, check out a live cam from a zoo so kids can see some of these animals firsthand. The San Diego Zoo has a bunch of great streams, from penguins to hippos to burrowing owls.

Zoo-Themed Printables

I Spy Zoo Animals Printable – Mrs. Merry
Printable Animal Masks – Preschool Play and Learn
Zoo Bingo – Deceptively Educational
Zoo Animals Color by Number Worksheets – Kindergarten Worksheets and Games
Zoo Animals Word Search – Crayons and Cravings
Printable Safari Matching Cards – The Purposeful Nest
Zoo Pretend Play Printables – 123 Homeschool 4 Me

Books and Activities

Check out Pockets of Preschool’s list of 21 zoo themed books for little learners, then find a craft or activity to go with them.

Read Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell, talk about the kinds of zoo animals you might want as a pet and make a super cute monkey snack and other simple craft ideas from Littles Love Learning.

Here’s a writing activity from ABCs of Literacy to go with If I Ran the Zoo. Or have kids design their own animal with this activity from Classy Kinders.

More Ideas

Need more ideas for zoo-themed activities? Natural Beach Living has an A-Z roundup of letter of the week animal crafts (not all are zoo animals), while Happy Toddler Playtime has a great list of sensory bins, animal activities, crafts and more.

Don’t miss the giraffe science experiment from Preschool Powol Packets, or all the zoo animal crafts collected at I Heart Crafty Things.

When my daughter was younger I would spend a lot of time trying to come up with activities she could do in the car on long road trips and things to entertain her when we were waiting at restaurants and things that didn’t involve screens.

But it turns out there are a lot of great activities you can do with just a piece of paper and a pen.

What Do We Do All Day has a great collection of pen and paper games, including some that can be done with just one person, though they’re all more fun if you have at least two.

There are some classics on here like hangman and dots and boxes, but there are also quite a few I hadn’t heard of before.

I don’t want to spoil the whole list for you because you should definitely click over there and look around, but I will share about the one that you see pictured above.

This game is called Bridges, and you start by making the big random shape and the dividing it into a bunch of sections (the post says 30-50 sections is ideal but I think this one is smaller than that).

Each player gets their own color marker and you take turns drawing bridges from one space to another, crossing a third. Once there’s a bridge, no other bridges can start, end or cross in those spaces. Keep going until no more bridges can be built, and the person who makes the last bridge wins.

Check out the post over at What We Do All Day for more great ideas for no or almost-no prep games you can play with your kids or that kids can play together. I’d love to know if you have a favorite paper and pen game, whether it’s on this list or a different one.

[Photo: What We Do All Day]

Zoo-Themed Printables

Books and Activities

More Ideas

Have you read?

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