Take an adventure into the woods with a forest animals theme. Check out these fun and educational activities.
Why Teach Kids about Forest Animals
Environmental Awareness
When little ones learn about forest animals, they may find their new favorite animal (for that day). Naturally, little ones will want to do what they can to help and protect animals.
This is the perfect segue into talking about how caring for our environment and world helps the animals.
Learning New Animals
Spark your child’s curiosity about new animals that may live in their backyard. This will bring the forest animals theme to life for them.
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Fosters Empathy
Caring for animals and their environment is a beautiful way to encourage empathy in preschoolers. This empathy lays the groundwork for caring about conservation and habitat issues.
Encourages Language Development
Names of animals, habitats, behaviors, and understanding of the animal’s role in the ecosystem all come with new words for little ones to learn.
Enhances Cognitive Skills
Differentiating between types of animals and habitats helps strengthen preschoolers’ memory, categorization, and critical thinking skills.
Forest Animals Theme Activities
Forest Animal Maks
Use paper plates to make masks that look like forest animals. Add yarn to the sides to keep the mask on your little one’s head. These can be used throughout the forest animals theme.
Animal Footprint Stamps
Use a sponge or a potato cut in half to make stamps like various forest animal footprints (deer, squirrel, fox, bears, etc.). Dip the stamps in paint and stamp them on the paper to create a forest footprint trail.
Make Bird Feeders
Whether you choose to make pinecone bird feeders or ones using recycled materials, your feathered neighbors are sure to enjoy them! Hang one outside your window so you can easily birdwatch.
Forest Sensory Bin
Gather some plastic forest animals and add them to a sensory bin. No melt snow or dirt would be a fun sensory experience.
Here are some other ideas for things to add to your sensory bin.
Clay Animal Sculptures
Use air-dry clay to make forest animals. Have pictures of forest animals handy to help your little one understand what the animals look like.
Forest Animal Shadow Puppets
Use cardboard or cereal boxes and cut out forest animals. Add popsicle sticks to the bottom. Use a flashlight to create shadows on the wall.
If your little one wants to, they can create stories about the forest animals.
Nature Walk
Go on a nature walk and see how many forest animals you see. Keep your eyes on the lookout for other signs of animals like scats, fur, or footprints.
You may want to try this at different times through the forest animals theme to see if you can see different animals.
Forest Animal Yoga
Teach your little one some yoga moves that forest animals inspire. Tree pose can represent a tree, cat-cow can represent a raccoon or fox, and downward dog can be used for a bear.
Forest Animal Snacks
Make snacks that resemble forest animals—toast with banana slices for the ears and mouth and blueberries for the eyes.
Using cherry tomatoes and olives, vegetables can be arranged to look like hedgehogs, and crackers can be turned into ladybugs. OF course, the classic ants on a log are a great choice.
Forest Animal Bingo
Use different forest animals to make bingo cards. As the animals are shown, talk about what they are called and where in the forest they live (in a den, in a nest, etc.)
Forest Animals Theme
Add some of these forest animals theme activities to your planning to make it easier. They target many skills to keep your preschooler growing mentally and physically.