Welcome to our zoo-themed craft extravaganza! If you're looking for a fun and educational way to engage your little ones, you've come to the right place. In this blog post, we'll explore a variety of zoo-inspired crafts that are perfect for kids of all ages. From adorable animal masks to creative dioramas, these crafts are sure to spark your child's imagination and foster their love for animals and nature. This adorable zoo animal crafts are a great way to pump up some little monkeys in your house or classroom about a zoo field trip too!

Fun and Adorable Zoo Animal Crafts for Kids

How Families and Teachers Can Use These Fun Zoo Animal Crafts:

Family Fun Time: Gather the whole family for a crafting session filled with laughter and creativity. These zoo crafts provide a great way for bonding while learning about different animals and their habitats. Encourage each family member to choose their favorite animals and create their own masterpiece.
Educational Tool: Teachers can incorporate these zoo crafts into their lesson plans to make learning about animals more interactive and engaging. Use the crafts as visual aids during lessons about animal classification, habitats, and conservation. Encourage students to research their chosen animal and share interesting facts with their classmates. Find a full lesson plan for preschool and Kindergarten teachers below.
Themed Parties and Events: Planning a zoo-themed birthday party or classroom event? These easy crafts make excellent decorations and activities to keep guests entertained. Set up craft stations where kids can make their own animal masks, binoculars, or even design their own zoo theme and exhibit.
Sensory Play: Get hands-on with sensory play by creating animal-themed sensory bins. Fill a large container with items such as shredded paper, toy animals, rocks, and leaves to represent different habitats. Encourage your animal lover to use their imagination to create stories and scenarios with the animals in their sensory bin.
Storytelling and Dramatic Play: Use the completed crafts of the wild animals as props for storytelling or dramatic play. Encourage older children to expand to act out scenes from their favorite zoo-themed books or movies using their handmade creations. This not only enhances their creativity but also helps improve language and communication skills.

No matter how you choose to use these zoo crafts, the most important thing is to have fun and encourage creativity. So, grab your supplies and let's get crafting!

To complete zoo crafts effectively, it's essential to have a variety of art supplies on hand to facilitate creativity and ensure that the crafts turn out beautifully. Here are ten must-have art supplies for completing zoo crafts:

Construction Paper: A staple for many crafts, construction white paper comes in a variety of colors and is perfect for creating animal shapes, backgrounds, and other elements.
Markers: Both washable and permanent markers are useful for adding details, coloring, and outlining on crafts. They're great for adding facial features, stripes, spots, and other fine details.
Paints (Acrylic paint or Tempera): Paints allow for vibrant colors and can be used to add texture and depth to crafts. They're excellent for coloring animals, backgrounds, and scenery. I love having a variety of colors outside of just the primary color sand white paint to allow young kids to be creative in their adorable creatures.
Paintbrushes: A selection of paintbrushes in different sizes allows for precise application of paint. Larger brushes are ideal for covering large areas, while smaller brushes are perfect for adding details.
Glue Stick / Bottle Glue: Essential for sticking paper elements together, glue or glue sticks are necessary for assembling crafts. They're also useful for attaching googly eyes, feathers, and other embellishments.
Scissors: Child-safe scissors are essential for cutting out shapes, patterns, and other elements from paper, cardboard, and other materials. They're necessary for almost every craft project.
Googly Eyes: wiggly eyes add personality and charm to animal crafts. They come in various sizes and colors and are perfect for creating expressive faces on animals.
Pipe Cleaners (Chenille Stems): Pipe cleaners are versatile and can be used to create limbs, tails, antennae, and other three-dimensional elements on crafts. They're great for adding texture and dimension.
Cotton Balls: Perfect for adding fluffy texture to crafts, cotton balls can be used to represent fur, clouds, snow, and other soft elements. They're ideal for creating polar bears, sheep, and other animals with fur.
Felt Sheets: Felt sheets are excellent for adding texture and depth to crafts. They can be used to create animal features like ears, noses, and tails, as well as backgrounds and scenery.
Paper Plates - A lot of the preschool zoo animal crafts require paper plates so having a big stack of these for students to create a lot of paper plate craft options will be a necessary and cheap purchase!
Toilet Paper Rolls: ITs always a great idea for teachers to have toilet paper rolls on hand for a variety of fun animal crats, but the fun monkey craft will need one for this zoo animals art project below.

With these ten art supplies on hand, you'll have everything you need to complete a wide range of zoo-themed crafts with children. They'll be able to let their imaginations run wild as they create their own zoo animals, habitats, and scenery.

Easy Zoo Animal Crafts

Make one or make all of these colorful zoo animal crafts for educational activities and fun together!

Paper Penguin Craft:
Create adorable penguins using black and white construction paper and toilet paper rolls. Cut out the penguin's body, wings, and beak shapes, then assemble them together to form a cute little penguin. Add googly eyes for extra personality!

Cardboard Tube Monkey Craft:
Repurpose cardboard tubes from toilet paper or paper towel rolls to make playful monkeys. Paint the tubes brown and add features like ears, arms, and a tail using construction paper. Hang them from trees or place them in a jungle diorama for a fun display.

Lion Footprint Great Craft:
Capture your child's footprint on paper and turn it into a majestic lion! Use yellow and orange paint to color the footprint, then add details like a mane, face, and tail using markers or additional paper cutouts.

Zoo Animal Finger Puppets:

Let your fingers come to life with these adorable zoo animal finger puppets! Create puppets resembling various animals like lions, elephants, giraffes, and zebras using felt, googly eyes, and glue. These puppets are perfect for imaginative play and storytelling.

Handprint Lion Craft:
Transform your child's handprint into a fierce lion's face! Paint the palm of their hand yellow or orange and the fingers brown to represent the lion's mane. Add facial features like eyes, a nose, and a mouth to complete the lion's look.

Polar Bear Craft:

Craft a cuddly polar bear using white construction paper or cotton balls. Cut out the bear's body shape and glue on facial features like eyes, a nose, and ears. Display your polar bear in a snowy Arctic scene for added effect.

Paper Plate Tiger Craft:
Turn a simple paper plate into a roaring tiger! Paint the plate orange with black stripes, then add features like eyes, a nose, and whiskers using construction paper or markers. This craft is perfect for jungle-themed parties or decorations.

Paper Plate Lion:

Create a friendly lion face using a paper plate as the base. Paint the plate yellow and add a mane made of yellow or orange construction paper strips. Finish by adding facial features like eyes, a nose, and a mouth for a whimsical touch.

Giraffe Craft:

Craft a tall and elegant giraffe using paper or cardboard. Check out this giraffe craft! It has a long neck, the giraffe’s spots, and is really a cute giraffe. Kids of all ages will adore this adorable giraffe craft. It requires only simple craft supplies to make this fun craft. This giraffe craft is great for in the classroom or at home.

Toucan Craft:
Make a colorful toucan using paper or foam sheets. Cut out the toucan's body shape and distinctive beak, then decorate with vibrant feathers or colored paper. Add googly eyes and a branch for the toucan to perch on for a tropical touch.

Paper Plate Snakes:
This Paper Plate Snake works for me on SO MANY LEVELS! Firstly, I LOVE the use of the bubble wrap printing method (do check out the link below, to see how it is done!!), to give that fabulous snake skin textured. Secondly, I do adore all Paper Plate crafts – I mean, what’s not to love about this hands on children’s craft material? And finally, I love that you can hang these Paper plate snakes up and turn the large circle into fun Whirligigs that spin around in your home or classroom.

Incorporating zoo-themed crafts into a preschool or kindergarten lesson plan can be both educational and fun. Here's a suggested lesson plan outline integrating the zoo crafts mentioned:

Lesson Plan Animal Theme: Exploring Zoo Animals

Objective:

To introduce young learners to various zoo animals and their characteristics.
To engage children in hands-on, creative activities that promote fine motor skills, creativity, and sensory exploration.

Materials Needed:

Supplies for each craft (paper, paint, cardboard tubes, etc. as per the specific craft)
Books or pictures depicting zoo animals
Optional: Zoo animal toys or figurines for further exploration and discussion

Lesson Plan:

Introduction to Zoo Animals (10 minutes):
- Begin the lesson by gathering students in a circle and discussing what they know about zoo animals. Show pictures or books depicting different zoo animals and talk briefly about each one.
- Encourage students to share any experiences they've had visiting a zoo or seeing animals in real life.
Craft Activity (20-30 minutes):
- Choose one or two of the zoo crafts listed, depending on the time available and the age of the children. For example, you could start with the Paper Penguin Craft or the Handprint Lion Craft.
- Provide step-by-step instructions for the chosen craft, demonstrating each step as needed. Encourage students to use their imagination and creativity to personalize their creations.
- Assist students as necessary, offering help with cutting, gluing, and assembling their crafts.
Discussion and Exploration (10-15 minutes):
- After completing the crafts, gather students together to share their creations. Encourage each child to talk about the animal they made and describe its characteristics.
- Use zoo animal toys or figurines to further explore different animals. Encourage students to compare and contrast the animals they've created with the ones they see in the toys or pictures.
Extension Activities (Optional):
- If time permits, incorporate additional activities related to zoo animals. For example, you could read a story about zoo animals, sing songs about animals, or create a simple animal habitat diorama using recycled materials.
- Encourage open-ended play with the crafts and animal toys, allowing students to continue exploring and creating on their own.
Closure (5 minutes):
- Wrap up the lesson by reviewing what students have learned about zoo animals. Ask questions to reinforce key concepts, such as the names of different animals, where they live, what they eat, etc.
- Encourage students to take their crafts home to share with their families, further extending the learning experience beyond the classroom.

By integrating zoo-themed crafts into the lesson plan, preschool and kindergarten students can engage in hands-on learning experiences that foster creativity, fine motor skills, and an appreciation for the natural world.

If you are also in Virginia, check out these different zoo options and our local zoo in Richmond, VA, Metro Richmond Zoo.