Z is for Zoo Crafts

Your child can create a menagerie of animals at home or school. With just a few household items and stuff in your art cart -- zoo animals can be made!

Gentle Giraffe -
Cut out the shape of a giraffe on yellow construction paper and let your child put spots on it with a bingo marker or ink stamp.

Slithering Snake -
Your children can make a snake out of a paper plate. First, draw a line that goes around and around from the edge to the middle and stops. Next, invite your youngster to sponge paint the plate (dab, dab, dab) with green and brown poster paints. When dry, the kids can cut on the line (lots of curves) to make a spiral. Punch a hole at the top, thread in a piece of string and hang the snake. It will wiggle and cause lots of giggles!

Zebra Stripes -
Draw and cut out a horse-shape from white construction paper. Using black poster paint, invite the children to marble paint this animal. Do this by placing the paper shape in a baking pan. Tape it down on the bottom of the pan with a rolled piece of tape. Coat a couple marbles with black paint and then place them into the pan. Your kids can tilt the pan back and forth, letting the balls roll over the animal. Children love to see this "horse" turn into a zebra. As a variation, ping-pong balls can be used.

Thumbprint Monkeys -
Give your children a piece of construction paper with the outline of a tree drawn on it (older children can draw their own tree). Set out ink pads and felt-tip makers. Let your kids make thumb print monkeys all over their tree picture. To create monkeys, have them press a thumb on an ink pad and make two thumb prints, one above the other on the paper. Then complete the monkeys by adding faces, arms, legs and tails with the markers.

Wow, I made it through my first A to Z Challenge. I hope you have enjoyed these early childhood activities and I would love to share more. I also appreciate all my new blogging friends who joined this site. Please pass this site address to any teacher friends or parents of young children. I usually post weekly (sometimes more often). I'm also looking for guest bloggers who would like to post anything related to children, early childhood schooling, and a child's well-being (you can also link back to your website). If you would like to select a week to post, please contact me at: taniacowling@gmail.com

All the best,
Tania

Photo courtesy of Tania Cowling, all rights reserved