Zoo Safari

Sandbox Safari

Fill box with sand, salt or other material. Can you find the animals hidden in the “sand?” Use cups, containers and spoons to fill and dump just like you would in a sandbox.

Skills Developed:  Fine and gross motor, sense of touch, sight.

Zoo dough

Use the dough and cookie cutters to cut out animals.

Skills Developed:  Fine motor, creative, mathematical (sorting), sense of touch, sight.

“Walking Through the Jungle”

Act out the words as you sing. 

Walking through the jungle (walk in place)

What do I see? (make binoculars with hands)

I see a lion looking at me. (make a lions mane with your hands at your face)

Roar, roar, roar (roar loud!)

Now look for other animals like snake (hiss, hiss, hiss), monkeys (oo, oo, ah, ah), elephant (stomp, stomp), hyena (ha, ha,ha), etc.

Skills Developed:  Gross motor, creative, language, listening.

“Zoo Who?” game

Each team picks one card.  Do not share what animal you have with any other team. When the leader says go, each team says the name of the animal on their card. Can you find anyone else that is the same animal? 

Skills Developed:  Thinking, sense of hearing, social.

Jungle Safari

The zoo animals have escaped! Can you help them find? Use a flashlight to find the animals. When you “catch” the animals, return it to its home. Use pictures of caves, polar region, African savannah, ocean, etc. for their “home.”

Skills Developed:  Thinking, mathematical (sorting), gross motor, sense of sight.

Feather Art

Just let your tot go, if they have painted before, they will know what to do! Talk with your tot about where feathers come from. Who wears feathers? Can you find any animals outside with feathers? Watch them. What they are doing? Why do birds have feathers? 

Skills Developed:  Creative, language, thinking, sense of sight and touch.

Zoo Animals big and small

Animals come in all shapes and sizes. Can you sort them by size or by their patterns? (stripes, spots) 

Skills Developed:  Thinking, mathematical (sorting, size, patterns), sense of sight. 

Will you read to me? Take a moment to enjoy a story. Skills Developed:  Listening, language. 

Learn Concentration Skills

Activity: Where’s the Bear?

• Tie one end of a long string around your child’s favorite teddy bear and hide it in a closet.
• Close the door, trail the string out under the door and run it around the room, over and under furniture and other objects.
• Say to your toddler, “Let’s find teddy.”
• Help him hold the string and follow it to the bear.
• As you are following the string, describe where you are going. For example, “The string is behind the chair.”
• When you find the bear, give him a big hug and say, “Oh Teddy, we are so glad we found you!”