Image: Shutterstock
Animals teach us empathy, compassion, and responsibility. Animal-themed games for kids offer engaging ways to explore the animal kingdom. These games also double as valuable educational tools that promote creativity and educate children about coexistence and caring for animals.
If you’re looking for fun and exciting games for your kids that help enhance learning, physical activity, social skills, imagination, and creativity, you have come to the right place. Here is a list of animal-themed activities and games for the overall development of your little one. Read on!
6 Entertaining Animal Games And Activities For Kids
These animal kingdom-inspired games and activities are only great fun for the kids, but they also help boost their creativity, intellectual abilities, and awareness about animal care. Here, we list five interesting and enjoyable animal activities for kids.
1. Animal races
Image: Shutterstock
You Will Need:
- A large room or garden
- A group of children
- Chart
How To:
- Teach your kids walking, hopping, or crawling styles of various animals.
- Then call out the name of an animal and instruct your kids to race according to the style of the animal. For instance, if you call a rabbit then kids should start hopping. If you call an elephant, then your kids should run with a swinging trunk. Thus, it is a fun game of animal role-play and animal matching.
- Allot points to every kid for the most accurate animal behavior, style and speed.
Quick fact2. Clothes pin giraffe
You Will Need:
- Two clothes pins
- Yellow construction paper
- Small pieces of brown construction paper
- Scissors
- Glue
- Marker
How To:
- Make and cut a Z-shaped design from yellow construction paper.
- Cut small pieces from the brown construction paper.
- Paste small brown pieces on the Z-shaped yellow construction paper.
- Draw the mouth and eyes of the giraffe using the marker.
- Clip on the clothespins at the bottom of the Z-shaped giraffe’s body to create its legs. These paper animal crafts for kids will deliver hours of fun and enjoyment as well as help them widen their imaginations.
3. Sleeping lions
A game that combines the stealth moves and cleverness of the king of the jungle. In this sleeping lions game the children’s ability to stay steady and calm will be put to test if they want to come out as a winner.
Image: Shutterstock
You Will Need:
- A group of children
- A large space
How To:
- Tell the group of children to lie calmly on the floor of a big room just like the sleeping lions. Instruct your kids to lie down as still as possible.
- Any kid who makes a substantial movement, you can get him or her, and mark the kid out.
- One who lies still till the end of the game is the winner. It is a great fun animal activity for kids to enjoy.
Quick tipA variation to this game with a musical twist is ‘Sleeping Animals.’ Recollecting organizing this fun animal-themed game in her class, Nicole, a mother of three and a teacher, states, “We’ve played ‘Sleeping Animals,’ which requires everyone to lie down firstly, pretending to be fast asleep. While the children lie quietly, you tell them that when the music starts and they wake up, they will be bouncing kangaroos, snappy crocodiles, or tiny mice. You turn the music on for half a minute, and then they all lie asleep, ready to be turned into another animal (i).”
4. Animal face sandwiches
You Will Need:
- Bread slices
- Raisins
- Peanut butter
- Grated carrots
- Slivers of pickles
- Plastic knives
How To:
- Provide a slice of bread to each of your kids.
- Teach your kids to spread the peanut butter on the bread slices creating the face of a particular animal.
- Place raisins in the center of the bread slices to help your kids make noses and eyes of the animals.
- Show your kids how to add slivers of pickle to create whiskers.
- Show your kids how to carefully sprinkle grated carrots to make the fur of the animal.
5. Save yourself from sharks
Image: Shutterstock
You Will Need:
- A big carpeted room
- Many non-slippery tea towels
- A group of children
How To:
- Scatter non-slippery tea towels in a large carpeted room and designate the towels as islands. The towels should be one less in number than the number of kids. For instance, spread ten towels on the floor if 11 kids are participating in the game.
- Tell your kids to walk around the islands on the floor of the large room doing swimming motions.
- Without any warning shout, ‘ The Shark is here to chase you.’ Tell the kids to get onto the island for safety such as one kid should occupy only one island or towel.
- The kid who fails to get a place on an island is out of the game.
- Repeat this till one island is left, and get one winner of the game. Explore these fun and interesting animal activities for children.
6. Pin the tail on the donkey
You will need:
- A picture of a donkey with a missing tail
- Paper tails with push pins or thumbtacks
- Blindfolds
- A wall for attaching the donkey picture
- An open space for spinning the blindfolded child
How to:
Attach the picture of the donkey to a wall within easy reach, blindfold each child one at a time, and hand them a paper tail with a push pin or thumbtack.
Spin the blindfolded child around, then they try to pin the tail on the donkey, and the player who pins their tail closest to the target, wins.
Remember that the game is more about having fun than being highly competitive.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What age range is appropriate for animal-themed games?
Animal-themed games are appropriate for children aged above five years. Parents should pay close attention to the game’s difficulty level and the environment in which it is played.
2. Can animal-themed games be educational for children?
Yes, animal-themed games can be educational for children. You could also use these games as part of learning school activities for kids to educate them about various creatures, their habitats, the sounds they make, and their appearances.
3. Are there any animal-themed games that promote teamwork among players?
Any animal-themed games would promote teamwork among children. They teach children to build friendships, share their things, and listen to one another.
4. What are some popular animal-themed games for birthday parties?
Popular animal-themed games for birthday parties include a safari scavenger hunt, an elephant trumpet, identifying the sounds of animals, and monkey tag.
Animal-themed games for kids mentioned above, including animal races, save yourself from sharks, animal face sandwiches, etc., would engage your kids for long hours without missing out on the fun. Animal-themed games are not only enjoyable, but also serve as educational activities for kids, allowing you to teach your children about the different animal habitats, their sounds, behaviors, and so on, all while having fun. So, go ahead and try any of these interesting activities for kids and have a great time with your children.
Infographic: Delightful Animal-Themed Games for Children
Almost every child feels naturally drawn to animals. Animal games and activities give them a fun learning experience. It also makes them bond with each other better. Children also get a chance to exercise their bodies with such games. Make these games more diverse by going through this infographic. Illustration: Momjunction Design Team
Key Pointers
- Young children can learn about coexistence in their lives and improve their motor skills, learning, and overall development through animal-themed games.
- Animal-themed games can develop empathy for animals and remove fear of them in children.
- Animal races, clothespin giraffes, animal face sandwiches, save yourself from sharks, and sleeping lions are five entertaining animal themed games.
Illustration: Top 6 Animal-Themed Games And Activities For Kids
Image: Dall·E/MomJunction Design Team
Join us on a wild gaming adventure with Oliver East! From cunning foxes to majestic dragons, there’s something for everyone! Get ready for some wild fun!
Personal Experience: Source
MomJunction articles include first-hand experiences to provide you with better insights through real-life narratives. Here are the sources of personal accounts referenced in this article.
i. Dear zoo – play ideas + printables for preschool.https://www.youclevermonkey.com/2014/03/dear-zoo.html?m=1
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