Animals

We have a collection of fun, and easy, activities all about animals including stories, songs, snacks and games! As you do each of these activities, ask your child questions to help engage them in the activity: What just happened? What do you think comes next?

Feel free to share these activities with families, teachers, friends, and colleagues! Have more ideas for simple and easy activities about animals? Share them with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We’ll feature our favorites in the list below.

Listen to a
Story

Learn a New Song

Whose
Feet?

…And More!

Read a Story About Animals

Explore the animal kingdom by listening together to stories about animals. Sit with your child on your lap. After each story, ask three or four “who, what, where, when, and how” questions about the story. For example, “Who was the story about?” and “What happened first?” It’s okay to pause the story too!

Learn a New Animal Song

Encourage your child to sing and/or listen to these songs while washing their hands, helping you prepare a meal, taking a bath, brushing their teeth, or riding in the car. Practice them together!

What Do You Hear?
Listening Activity #1

Watch the story below with your child. Talk about the different animals and where they live in the wild.

Polar Bear Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

Now, watch the video again. This time, pause the story after each animal and challenge children to act out the animal who makes the sound that they hear.

What Do You Hear?
Listening Activity #2

Play a listening game with animal sounds. On the link below, you’ll find clips of lots of different types of animal noises. Click on each one to make a noise.

  1. Using just their ears, ask children to identify the animal sounds.
  2. Ask them to use their imagination to draw a picture of the animal who makes the sound they hear.
  3. Type the name of the animal into an online search engine (like Google) and you can find real photos of each animal.
  4. Compare how different or similar your child’s drawing is to the photo.
  5. Try another animal!

Animal Yoga

Yoga is a great way to develop large motor skills, focus, and concentration. Try these fun animal yoga poses, or make up your own!

Vocabulary Words:

  • Cleansing Breath: to take in a deep and slow breath
  • Exhale: to breathe out
  • Pose: different postures designed to enhance muscle strength
  • Yoga: a course of related exercises and postures designed to promote physical and spiritual well-being

To Start:

  1. Find a quiet spot with enough floor space to stretch out.
  2. Sit on the floor with your legs crossed like a pretzel.
  3. Start by taking a deep cleansing breath together. Exhale slowly.
  4. Try each of the following animal poses:
    • Mouse: Children begin on their knees with their hands by their mouths pretending that they are little mice eating a snack. Ask them to take a deep breath and then slowly exhale while curling up in a little ball. Stay there for a few seconds, and then do it again.
    • Elephant: Children begin this pose on hands and knees with head hanging down. Children take a deep slow breath and slowly rise their body (knees stay on the ground) lifting their hands slowly up in the air to make a trunk. Once their trunk gets above their head they will begin to slowly exhale while lowering their trunk until their hands are back down on the ground.
    • Squirrel: Children begin this pose standing up with hands high over their heads. Take a deep breath and slowly bend down to touch their knees while exhaling. While they have their hands touching their knees ask them to shake their tails.

Try making up your own animal pose!

Floating Feather Game

In this activity, children can learn about how birds and how they soar through the air. It’s a fun game that requires eye-hand coordination, and for children to be creative and use their arms, legs, hands, and feet.

Things you will need:

  • Small and soft feathers, or toilet paper squares cut into the shape of feathers
  • Floor space

Instructions:

  1. Ask your child what animals have feathers? (Birds!)
  2. Ask your child to use their imagination and pretend they are a bird. When they fly, do they think it is graceful and slow, or choppy and fast? How do birds stay in the air? (By flapping their wings!) What happens when they stop flapping by leaving their wings spread far out? Do they come down fast or slow?
  3. Ask them what they think happens when you drop a feather from high in the air? Will it come down fast or slow?
  4. Ask your child to lay face up (on their back) on the floor.
  5. Drop the feather over your child. Ask them what happened? Did it drop quickly or slowly?
  6. Now turn it into a game! Keep dropping feathers!
  7. Encourage them to catch the feather using their hands, legs, feet, before it falls on the ground.
  8. Challenge them to catch multiple feathers while lying on the ground and using only one hand at a time.

Mouse Ears

Mice cannot see very well but they have fantastic hearing! Practice your mouse senses with your child.

  1. Have your child cup their hands behind their ears and close their eyes.
  2. Use different items around your house to make noises. Try shaking a container of rice or a box of cereal, snapping your fingers, or swishing milk around in a container.
  3. Ask:
    • What can you hear? What might it be?
    • Is it louder or quieter than normal?
    • What if you turn your head, can you hear something else?

Barnyard Snacks

Here’s a great snack time activity. Using your imagination, together with your child see how many farm animals you can create with fruits, vegetables, and cheese.

Things you will need:

Lots of different fruits and vegetables.

Try:

  • Apples
  • Berries
  • Bananas
  • Broccoli
  • Carrots
  • Cauliflower
  • Celery
  • Cucumber
  • Grapes
  • Raisins

Toothpicks/skewers

Cheese cubes

Instructions:

  1. Cut your fruits and vegetables into different shapes.
  2. See what animals your imagination can create.

Polar Bear Treats

Polar Bears live near the Arctic Circle where it is very cold and they are surrounded by ice and snow. Let’s make special polar bear treats with fruit and ice! They make a delicious, and healthy, dessert.

Ingredients:

  • Ice cube tray
  • Fruit, cut into small pieces
  • Water
  • Toothpicks or Popsicle sticks (optional)
  • Plastic wrap

Instructions:

  1. Cut fruit into small pieces.
  2. Practice the name of each fruit and their colors with your child.
  3. Ask your child to choose fruit to place in each square of an ice cube tray. They can mix and match different flavors and colors if they would like!
  4. Add water to ice tray.
  5. Cover ice tray with plastic wrap.
  6. Poke toothpicks or Popsicle sticks through the plastic wrap to make a handle for their treat.
  7. Place the ice tray into the freezer.
  8. Polar Bear treats should be ready in an hour.