Pre-K & Preschool theme ideas for learning about African animals.
Find more Wild Animal Activities for Pre-K
Books
Check here for a complete list of Safari Animal Books
Wild Animals Large Motor Games
Elephant Conga Line
Children walk like an elephant on all four legs, trying to keep their balance while lifting a front leg and a back leg. We made a line of elephants and tried walking around the circle as a group.
Handa’s Surprise: Interacting with the Story
After reading the story, Handa’s Surprise, we talk about how Handa carries fruit to her friend. The children try to balance a basket of play fruit on their head the way Handa did in the story.
Wild Animals Art Activities
African Drum Art
This is a good activity to go with the book, Jungle Drums, by Graeme Base. Children make drums out of drink mix cans and use pencils or dowel sticks for drumsticks. A piece of paper is wrapped and glued around the can. Children decorate the drum with animal skin patterns:
Elephant: wrinkled (crumpled) paper painted gray
Zebra: black stripes painted on white paper
Giraffe: brown spots painted on yellow paper
Cheetah: small black spots painted on tan paper
Hippopotamus: painted gray-blue
Rhinoceros: painted gray
Hyena: black and brown spots painted on tan paper
If you don’t have drink mix cans, you can make quiet drums by decorating a paper plate, and use plastic straws for drumsticks.
Wild Animals Literacy Activities
Class Book: “I Went On Safari”
Children choose an African grasslands animal to draw on the page. Each page says: “I went on safari, and what did I see? I saw a ____ looking at me!” The pages are put together to make the class book.
Letter Game
Each child has a strip of paper with about 8 letters on it. Children take turns drawing a letter out of a bag. When a letter is pulled out, everyone stamps out that letter on their paper with a safari animal stamp.
Story Retelling
This is an activity that goes with any theme. Choose a book that goes with the theme, and have the children retell the story.
Read the blog post here for details: story retelling
Elephant Bingo Stamping Game
Read about and print the Elephant Bingo Game here.
Wild Animal Roll & Write Game
Read about and print the Wild Animal Roll & Write Game here.
Wild Animals Math Activities
Tangram Animals
Children match tangrams to the shapes on the tangram mats to make African animals. [These mats came from: Tangram Animals A to Z, by Learning Resources]
Stamp Patterns
Children make patterns with safari animal rubber stamps.
Wild Animal Grid Games
Read about and print the Lion & Elephant Grid Games here.
Wild Animals Science Activities
Scent Hunt
We talk about ways lions use their sense of smell. Cotton balls are placed around the room: a few unscented cotton balls and some with scented oil. The children pretend to be lions on the hunt by crawling around, and use their noses to find the scented ones. If you have students with perfume allergies or asthma, be sure to use a natural scented oil, such as peppermint oil.
Zoo Field Trip Checklist
Read about and print the Zoo Field Trip Checklist here.
Wild Animal Printable Books
Find two Wild Animal Printable Books here (see “Lions” and “On Safari”).
More
Rhymes
Rhymes that go well with a Safari theme:
Songs
- Alphabet Zoo CD: Jack Hartmann
- The Jaguar: Mrs. Jones Sing Along Songs
- Hear the Animals: Mrs. Jones Sing Along Songs
- Going to the Zoo: traditional song
- Kourilengay (West Africa): Multicultural Rhythm Stick Fun
by Kimbo
- Carnival of the Animals
Find more Wild Animal Activities for Pre-K
From My Shop
You might like my Animal Environments Sort & Classify pack, available in my shop.
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