Preschool Zoo Scavenger Hunt and Activities

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Want a fun Zoo Scavenger Hunt, Zoo coloring pages, and more preschool Zoo activities?  This post will give you all you need!  Preschool is the prefect time to teach kids about zoo animals.

We recently got some new PLAYMOBIL toy sets and I thought it would be fun to turn the toys into a learning experience for my kids. I made some printable preschool zoo activities to go along with the PLAYMOBIL Zoo & School Bus sets.

Think of it like your own personal zoo field trip!  But all of these printables would be great accompanying a real zoo field trip, too!

That’s how my kids like to play with the toys.  They set up the zoo and the people ride the bus to come to the zoo.  I figured this was the perfect opportunity to teach my kids some zoo animal words.

4 Ways to Use PLAYMOBIL to Teach:

1. Imaginative Play: This is always an easy thing for kids and teachers alike. Imaginative play is so important for kids development. Let kids explore and learn together as they play!
2. Animal Identification: These toys are great to help kids learn names of different animals. Match up the moms with their babies.
3. Learn to write and spell the names of the animals or the toys.  In my printable set, I have animal names that can be traced and spelled. You could do the same with any of the PLAYMOBIL toys!
4. Reenact stories or scenarios. My kids used the toys to reenact a favorite picture book about the zoo. Another example: with a police set, you could have kids reenact police men helping people.
5. Practice making animal sounds and pretending to be the zookeeper.

One of my kids’ favorite ways to play with the set was to recreate scenes from one of their favorite books, Goodnight Gorilla. In this book, the gorilla gets the keys from the bookkeeper and lets all of the other animals out of the zoo.

If you can’t get the zoo Playmobil set, any plastic zoo animals will be great to accompany this!

But my kids like to turn this into what they call zoo mayhem! The animals take over the zoo and create a crazy scene. They think it’s hilarious! (& yes we know this is an orangutan!)

Printable Preschool Zoo Activity Pack

The printable set I created can help kids learn zoo words. There are some fun activities including coloring and writing animal pages, animal puzzles, and a zoo scavenger hunt.  The coloring/writing animal pages include a zoo animal to color, an animal maze, the word to color and to trace.  These worksheets are best printed on white paper so they can be colored.

The Animals Included in This Printable Zoo Set:

• Lion
• Bear
• Rhinoceros
• Kangaroo
• Hippopotamus
• Tiger
• Tortoise
• Zebra
• Penguin
• Monkey
• Elephant
• Giraffe
• Peacock
• Iguana
• Frogs
• Ostrich
• Toucan
• Alligator

There is an individual activity page for the first 8 animals that has a spelling/word tracing activity, a coloring page and an animal maze.  There are animal puzzles for the first 12 animals matching the name to the picture. The zoo scavenger hunt includes all of the listed animals. This printable pack is a whopping 12 pages long!  It is sure to help you with your preschool or kindergarten zoo theme.

These activities will help with literacy, fine motor skills, animal habitats, and animal recognition. It is great for any young learners! Use the zoo printables in a science center. Give kids some crayons, pencils and scissors and let them learn together about the different zoo animals with their peers!

DOWNLOAD The Preschool Zoo Activities Now!

If you are interested in purchasing these fun PLAYMOBIL sets, they are available at Walmart & other retailers.

These were our first PLAYMOBIL sets, and my kids have been having so much fun with them!  They have played with the toys for hours. We have been so impressed with the detail and design of these toys.  There are so many moveable parts and so many tiny little pieces that spark the creativity of my kids. The sets are so imaginative. My kids are already planning the next PLAYMOBIL Christmas and birthday gifts they want!

Download this printable Preschool Zoo Scavenger Hunt and Activity set now!

DOWNLOAD

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