Our Zoo Theme was full of hands-on learning fun.
There are so many things I wanted to share with you.
Unfortunately, I did not capture all of our fun on film :(
Today, I will share a few fun activities that I managed to capture!
Handprint Zoo Animal Fun:
I just can't resist a cute handprint craft opportunity!
What You Need:
yellow, brown, black & white paint
thin paint brushes
construction paper
permanent markers
What We Did:
To Make a Handprint Giraffe:
1. Paint entire hand with yellow paint & press firmly to paper
2. Using pinky dipped in brown paint add spots & hooves
3. Add tail, hair & face (we used permanent marker for face)
The Lil Divas Handprint Giraffes:
5 yr. old 4 yr. old
To Make a Handprint Zebra:
1. paint hand white
2. press firmly onto paper
3. using pinky draw tail & add dot of block (hair)
4. using thin paintbrush use black paint to add stripes as desired
4. add some hair and facial features (we used black permanent marker for face)
& behold your adorable handprint zebra!
The Lil Divas Handprint Zebras
5 yr. old 4 yr. old
A fun activity, cute craft & fabulous keepsake!
At the Zoo - An Easy Reader Conuting Book:
This was a homemade easy reader activity for my soon to be Kindergartener.
The Littlest Diva did it too & she did really well.
I kept it simple going from #1-5 and used a repetitive phrase with sight words and words that she should know. It was fun for her to make her own book and then read it to all of us!
What You Need:
3 sheets of white paper
zoo animal stickers
pencil
What We Did:
I typed out a general template for the book with a title page and then a page for 1-5 zoo animals that said "I can see (fill in number) (fill in animal) at the zoo. I had the numbers pre-done. The Lil Divas choose 5 animals to use in their book and put on the correct number of stickers for each page. I then helped them spell the animal word and they added it to each page accordingly.
Once we were all done with our books -
the Oldest Diva got to read hers to us!
The Littlest Diva needed help but she read quite a bit of it on her own too!
I am so proud of their developing reading!
Here is a full peek at what our books look like:
Simple, straight forward and a wonderful math, writing & reading activity!
Animal Cracker Math:
We LOVE working with food! The Lil Divas get such a kick out of it.
Animal crackers are a fun manipulative so I decided to do let the Lil Divas do some basic addition with them.
What You Need:
Animal Crackers
dice
dry erase board
dry erase markers
What We Did:
1. I gave each Lil Diva a large foam dice.
2. They rolled the dice and wrote the number on their dry erase board.
Then they put down the corresponding number of animal crackers.
3. They rolled a 2nd time and added the new number to their dry erase board forming an addition problem by putting the + sign between the numbers. Then they added the corresponding amount of crackers for the 2nd roll and added/counted them all up to determine their total!
4. They wrote down their answer (making sure to include a = sign)
and I checked it before they moved on to a new problem!
They really enjoyed practicing addition with animal crackers &
after we were all done - they got to have a yummy snack! :)
Handwriting Practice - Letter Z
In a previous post I shared that we formed the letter Z with foam and drew it on a ziploc baggie full of paint.
I noticed that the Littlest Diva was having trouble with slant/diagonal lines which you need to be able to do to properly form a letter Z. I found a great printable that her practice slant lines here.
Once she was able to make the slant lines on her own -
we worked on writing the Letter Z.
She is now able to write the Letter Z wonderfully & she makes great slant lines! Can I get a YAY!, for the Littlest Diva! She takes her handwriting so seriously - always competing with Big Sis.
Practicing Measurement & Basic Ruler Skills
Finally, I wanted to share this fun little book I found with you:
This is a thick board book that comes with a ruler attached (stores in a clear plastic pocket attached to the cover.
Each page of the book has something to measure (it tells you what to do in the text).
The Lil Divas LOVED measuring the animals & items in the book!
This was a really cute book that went great with our zoo theme
& provided some extra ruler practice.
Some Other Zoo Books We Read:
I hope you enjoyed what we shared of our Zoo Themed Fun!
Bern
