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.

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Zoo Learning Activities for Kids

Shark Week generally happens in July, but any time is a good time to learn more about sharks.

First, start with some fun whale facts like these from Kids Craft Room. Here I learned about the dwarf lantern shark, which is the smallest shark and only grows to about 6-8 inches (about 15-20 cm) long. It also emits light. How cool is that?

Natural Beach Living has some great printable shark information guides, where kids can learn about different kinds of sharks, match the facts to the pictures, or print out doubles and do a shark memory game.

Living Life an Learning has some great shark activity pages including the parts of a shark, types of sharks, a crossword puzzle and more. Also check out their parts of a shark and word scramble download, and a life cycle worksheet.

Learn about how sharks float with this great activity from JDaniel4’s Mom.

Need more facts about sharks? This fact pact from The WOLFe PACK on Teacher Pay Teachers includes fact sheets, a printable flip book, informational text, vocabulary, comprehension questions and more.

Living Montessori Now has a great collection of shark themed activities with a Montessori inspired twist. You’ll find a shark roll and cover, shark phonics and lots more shark activities Deb has collected from all over the Internet.

Remember the “Sharknado” movie? A Few Shortcuts turned the combination of sharks and tornadoes into a fun science activity. You’ll need a bottle connector for this project but otherwise should have everything you need on hand. Use their template to make your sharks out of aluminum foil. So fun!

You can also do some shark themed coloring with these coloring pages from Encouraging Moms at Home. Or make a cool 3D shark with this template from korkotak. And there are tons of different shark crafts collected in this post from Kids Activities Blog.

Zoo-Themed Printables

Books and Activities

More Ideas

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