Fun Activities on an Animal Theme for Preschoolers

Farm Animal Crafts

• Preschool children can make a variety of farm animals using colored cotton balls. Children can paint the cotton balls to make different animals or use colored pompoms from a craft store. To make a pig, the children use a pink cotton ball or pompom. Ask them to glue googly eyes on the pig and use a pink chenille stem to make a curly tail. For a chick, ask the preschoolers to glue googly eyes on a yellow cotton ball or pompom. They can use orange craft foam to cut a beak to glue on the chick and black craft foam to make the feet.

Memory Games

• Print pictures of animals from online (two of each animal). Laminate each picture to make the pictures more durable and last longer. Place the pictures face down on a table and let the preschoolers play a game of memory. If a child finds a match, she can go again. The preschooler with the most matches at the end of the game wins. For another memory game, place several plastic animals on a tray and show the preschoolers. Take the tray out of the room and remove one animal. Bring it back in and the first child who can tell you which animal is missing from the tray wins a small prize.

Holiday Animal Crafts

• Give each child a white paper plate to make an Easter bunny. Help the children cut two oval ears from white construction paper. Cut two smaller ovals from pink construction paper. The children glue the pink ovals on top of the white ovals to create the bunny ears. Have children glue the ears to the top of the plate. The children can use markers to draw the face on the plate. For a Thanksgiving craft, the children can make a handprint turkey. Paint the preschooler's palm and thumb with brown paint and press onto white paper. Paint each one of his fingers a different color and press above the palm print to create the turkey's feathers. Help the children draw two eyes on the turkey with a white paint pen and a wattle with a red paint pen.

Circle Games

• Ask the preschoolers to sit in a circle. Use the animal cards from the memory game for an animal sound game. Select one child to go first. Hold up an animal card and have that child make the sound the animal makes. If she is correct, award her with a small prize. Hold up an animal card for each child in the circle. This game will teach the children all the different sounds animals make. For another circle game, hand one of the children a plush toy animal. Play music and have the children pass the animal around the circle. When the music stops, the player holding the animal is out of the game. Keep playing music and eliminating one preschooler each round. The last player left in the game wins the plush animal.