Zoo Animals -- Preschool & Kindergarten
Zoo Fingerplays/Songs
Zookeeper
Sing to the tune "Mulberry Bush" the tasks of a zookeeper:
"This is the way we feed the lions,"
"This is the way we clean the cages."
"This is the way we wash the elephants."
Zoo Animals
(tune: Have You Ever Seen A Lassie?)
Have you ever seen the ________.
The ______, the _______?
That lives in the zoo?
That lives in the zoo,
That lives in the zoo.
Have you ever seen the ______,
That lives in the zoo?
Have children take turns naming zoo animals. After each child's turn have the children sing the above song, filling in the blank with the animal's name.
The Zoo
A good poem to use with body movements.
At the zoo we saw a bear.
He had long dark fuzzy hair.
Pretend to walk like a bear.
We saw a lion in a cage.
He was in an awful rage.
Pretend to be a angry lion.
We saw the big, long-necked giraffe,
And the silly monkeys made us laugh.
Be laughing monkey.
But my favorite animal at the zoo,
Is the elephant--how about you?
Discuss everyone's favorite.
Art
Animal-Picture Books
Need: magazines, catalogs, paper
Cut out magazine pictures of different kinds of animals. Provide each child with several sheets of paper, folded and stapled into a book. Encourage them to choose pictures to glue into their books, then make up stories about the pictures. Encourage children to write their own stories by using scribbles or invented spelling or by dictating their stories.
Zoo Collage
Have children cut out animal pictures from magazines and make a collage.
Zoo Pennants
Need: triangle shape construction paper.
Make pennants for zoo visitors. Have children paint and decorate large paper triangles; they can include their favorite zoo animal on the pennant. Use the pennants to decorate a bulletin board or staple onto cardboard tubes for the children.
Zoo Language
Zoo
Introduce the word "zoo". Cut out the letters zoo letters, paste in order and color.
What Animal Is Missing?
Place the animal cards in the middle of a group of children. Name the animals. Talk about the animals. Have the children close their eyes and the teacher removes one of the cards. Let the children guess which animal is missing.
Use the Zoo Animal Cards to:
Children color the animal and color the animal name.
Have children lay out the animal cards in alphabetical order.
Zoo Math
Use the Zoo Animal Cards to:
Patterns. Print multiple pages for children to lay out in patterns.
Concentration game. Print two sheets of each page, glue to a folder
type paper, cut out. Play a game of concentration.
Animal Safari
Tape picture of zoo animals throughout the room or building. Give each child a clipboard and a "Safari" graph. The children color in a box on their graph when they find an animal.
When done collect the animal pictures and use them to make a floor graph. Compare the children's graphs to the floor graph.
Zoo Learning Centers
Habitat
On the science table, place a bowl of water, a tray of dirt, and a box with hay or grass. Also, include many small toy zoo animals. The children can place the animals in their correct habitat.
Look Close
Provide magnifying glass with pictures of zoo animals. Children can examine the animals up close.
In the sensory table(water table) place rubber, plastic, or wooden models of zoo animals. Place hay (or paper strips) in a for children to feed or bed down animals.
Create an area as a concession stand (puppet theaters work well for shops) with play: popcorn, juice, hot dogs, hamburgers, tickets, and money. Decide on a name for the “Zoo Shop” and decorate a sign to hang up. Create a price list for the zoo shop items. See below for zoo money and zoo tickets. The $1 is a child’s ticket and the $5 is an adult ticket.
Math--Count The Zoo Animals In Cages
Collect a set of ten plastic strawberry containers and place a numeral from one to ten on the bottom of each. These willserve as zoo cages when turned upside down. Ask the children to place the appropriate number of plastic animals beneath the cages.
Add plastic zoo animals (and small brushes if available) to the water table for the animals to be given baths. You can add dish soap to the water for animal bubble baths.
Zoo Snacks
Animals on Grass
Take a graham cracker and spread either peanut butter or green-tinted cream cheese on the top. Stand an animal cracker on the top of the graham cracker.
Bananas
Popcorn in paper bags, like you would buy at the zoo.
Let's Go To The Zoo Video
Gross Motor
Feeding Pail Toss
Toss balled paper balls into a feeding pail.
Balance Beam
Walk like cats on the balance beam.
Book Review
Z Is for Zookeeper: A Zoo Alphabet
by Marie Smith
that live in the zoo.
Caring for creatures
is what zoo keepers do.
How do zoo keepers keep animals in their charge safe and healthy? How do they transport them, house them and save them from disease and extinction? What's the one sound a zookeeper will never forget? What's an incubator?
For the answers to all of these questions and more, parents and teachers will want to share this delightful book with children.
Elephant
Fingerplays/Songs
An Elephant Goes Like This And That
An elephant goes like this and that,
(pat knees)
He's terrible big,
(put hands up high)
And he's terrible fat,
(wiggle fingers)
And he has no toes,
(touch toes)
But goodness gracious, what a nose!
(make curling movement away from nose)
Five Little Elephants
(To start hold up five fingers. Turn down one finger for each verse)
Five little elephants
Rowing toward the shore,
One fell in.
And then there were four.
Four little elephants
Climbing up a tree,
One slid down.
Then there were three.
Three little elephants
Living in the zoo,
One walked off.
Then there were two.
Two little elephants
Playing in the sun,
One fell asleep.
Then there was one.
One little elephant
Isn't any fun.
Abra-ca-da-bar!
Then there were none!
Elephant - Large Motor
Five Big Elephants
Five big elephants - oh, what a sight,
Swinging their trunks from left to right!
Four are followers, and one is the king.
They all walk around in the circus ring.
To pantomime, the children crouch over and clasp their hands, then move arms left and right as they walk. Choose one child to be the king elephant other children follow as elephants. The 'elephants' walk around the room several times as the rhyme is recited.
Elephant Feet
Need: Grocery bags, rubber bands or ties made from a old sheet.
Using black felt pen make elephant toes on the grocery bags. Have children put bags on one foot or both. Tie tops. Using arms have children "find their trucks". Now put on "The Jungle Book" cd or some other wild record and go the "Elephants" stomp!
Elephant - Art
Gray
Provide white and black paint for the children to paint with. When gray shows up on their painting—“where did the gray come from?”.
Patchwork Elephant
Print the elephant outline. Using scraps of construction paper, wallpaper, and any items in your scrap box glue scraps onto the elephant to make a colorful body. Remember to make the ears, tusks, trunk, and eyes distinctive.
Elephant - Group Time
Who Am I?
I am big.
I have big ears.
I have a long nose.
My name starts with an "e".
Who Am I?
Elephant
Right foot, left foot, see me go.
I am gray and big and slow.
I come walking down the street,
With my truck and four big feet.
Read the poem and ask the children, "Who knows what zoo animal the poem is talking about? Who has seen a real elephant? What did it look like?
Elephant - Language
Elephants Eat Mini Book cut out and fold. Have children color the pictures and read the text.
Elephants Eat Mini Book
Elephant Color
Elephants color page with the word elephant to color.Elephant - Math
Huge
An elephant is huge. It is 13.8 feet (4.2 m) tall. An elephant’s foot generally measures 1.3 feet-1.6 feet (40-50cm) in length and width.
Make a circle with tape the size of an elephant’s foot. Use blocks to measure. Leave on the floor for children.
Number Cards
Print two sets of the below number cards and glue on card stock. Use the cards for matching games. Play a game of concentration with the cards.
Sets
Place the small number cards in a bag (you can use a number more than once). Have the children take turns drawing a number out of the bag. Have the child read the number and place counters or objects on the number card. Continue with the other children.
Giraffe
Who am I? I am the giraffe.
Of all the animals
in the zoo,
I am the tallest.
That is true.
Who am I? I am the giraffe.
I am brown and white,
and I have two knobs
on the top of my head.
Who am I? I am a giraffe.
My neck is long,
I am very tall,
but I don't have very
much voice at all.
Who am I? I am a giraffe.
I have one big ear on
each side of my head.
High up in the air
is where I am fed.
Who am I? I am a giraffe.
I walk right up
to the tallest tree
and I eat the leaves
that are good for me.
Who am I? I am a giraffe.
Giraffe - Art
Camouflage
Glue yellow strips of paper on a piece of construction paper in a design of your choosing. Provide brown circles and squares to glue on the paper to create a design. Instead of the pre-cut shapes a variety of different size lids can be set out for the children to trace on their papers and color brown.
Giraffe Spots
Need: Orange or yellow construction paper, brown paint, small sponges,
clothespins, trays.
Use the clothespins as handles and attach a sponge to the end. Put the paint on a try, use the sponge to dip into the paint and dab spots onto the paper.
Easel
Yellow and brown paint at the easel.Make a giraffe
Need: giraffe, brown fingerpaint, clothespins
Giraffe pattern
Cut the shape of a giraffe out of yellow posterboard; just the body
without the legs. Have the children fingerpaint brown tempera spots
on the giraffe. Clip two clothespins onto the giraffe for legs/feet.
Children fingerpaint feet onto the clothespins....The children love it.
Contributed By: Rosie Ortegon
Giraffe - Group Time
Long Necks
A giraffe’s neck is long. It is about 6 feet (2 m) long. Place a 6-foot length of tape on the floor. Have the children measure the tape with: blocks, with themselves (how many children equal 6 feet), their feet...
Tongue
A giraffe's tongue is purplish-black with bristly hairs for eating around acacia thorns. A giraffe's tongue can extend almost twenty inches! Measure with tape or blocks how long 20 inches is.
Giraffe - Language
Giraffe
Giraffe color page with the word giraffe to color.
Giraffes Mini Book cut out and fold. Have children color the pictures and read the text.
Giraffe - Math
Giraffe Spots
The giraffe has lost his spots. Print the giraffe pattern below-one for each child. Provide the children with a die. The children take turns rolling a die and counting the dots. The child counts the dots on the die and colors that many dots on the giraffe with a brown crayon.
Short and Tall
Use objects that differ in size. Arrange from short to tall. Ask the children which one is tall. Which one is short. (tall jar, short jar...)
Giraffe Short and Tall mini book.
Monkey
Fingerplay/Song
The Monkey
The monkey claps, claps, claps his hands. (clap hands)
The monkey claps, claps, claps his hands. (clap hands)
Monkey see, monkey do.
The monkey does the same as you.(use pointer finger-change actions)
Science
Fleas
Monkeys often have fleas. Provide a large picture of a flea with a magnifying glass for children to examine up close.
Flea imageMonkey Meals (serves one)
Ingredients: 1 banana, 1 hot dog roll , 2 tsp. peanut butter, Miscellaneous vegetable slices
Peel banana, place in hot dog roll. Spread peanut butter over the banana. Add various vegetable slices for condiments.
Tiger
Games
Tiger Ball
Need: Large ball
Children sit in a circle (a small circle of five to eight children provides more learning opportunity). If the group is large, divide into two or three circles. Children chant the following verse as they pass the ball around the circle:
Tiger ball, tiger ball,
Where it stops, no one knows.
If you're caught holding it,
You become a tiger.
On the word, "Tiger," whoever is holding the ball at that moment must lose a turn, and sit in the center of the circle. Children do not mind this penalty in the slightest because they are the center of attention and because their time out is very brief.
This game, while very, very simple, is a great delight for little children. It teaches them, in the gentlest way, something about cooperation through simple give and take.
Color Pages
Sites to See
San Diego Zoo Kids Section
elephant family color page.
