Preparing Summer Slide Going to the Zoo

Games to Play Before Going to the Zoo

Here are some games to play with kids to get them prepared to go to the zoo.

Animals and Their Young Ones
You will need: Pictures of animals and their young ones, white construction sheets (one for each child), and glue.
Place the pictures of different zoo animals onto a center table. Place the pictures of their young ones onto another center table. Ask the children to pick an animal of their choice from one table and then go and find its young one from the other table. Once they have the mother and young one, ask them to paste them onto the construction paper. Have them paste as many pairs as they can.

Animal Puzzles
You will need: Large animal pictures, glue, and construction paper.
Cut the animal pictures into two and shuffle them together. Place this mix onto a center table. Give each child, half of the animal picture and ask them to find the other half from the table. Ask them to paste the parts correctly onto the construction paper. For this activity, use animals which have distinctive coats, such as tigers, leopards, zebras, etc., which will make the task of matching, easier for the children.

Animal Sound Games
This game aims to teach children different animal sounds. Put various pictures of animals in a cardboard box and then pull out one at a time.

Monkey Game
This game is a lot of fun and also educates children about the monkey's mimicking nature. Have the children stand in a circle and choose a leader within themselves. This leader will choose actions and perform them and the other monkeys will follow. Make sure each child is given a chance to be the leader.

Make Animal Masks

Click this link to print out free animal mask templates. Although these masks are under the title of Halloween, they are perfect zoo animals to print, color, then wear.