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Animal Activities for Toddlers
Here are some fun toddler learning activities to do while your child is learning about the various kinds and species of animals that exist:
- Visit your local pet store. You might not see many big animals, but you'll probably find lots of fish, rodents, birds, turtles, and reptiles. When you get home, draw pictures of the animals you saw.
- Make animal puppets out of paper sacks and construction paper. Your toddler won't care if they aren't perfect and he or she can have animal puppet shows with them when you are finished.
- Cut out pictures of animals and make your own collage or animal scrapbook.
- Have animal crackers for a snack. Take turns making their animal sounds or acting out how they move.
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Animal Books for Toddlers
Here are some great toddler learning books on animals that your child will enjoy reading again and again.
Let's Go to the Zoo by Ellen Weiss
This lift-the-flap book featuring Fisher Price's Little People has over forty flaps to peek under. It covers a variety of concepts like animal sounds, colors, counting, and action words. The sturdy flaps are just right for little hands and don't tear easily. This is a fun book to read to prepare for an upcoming visit to the zoo.
Time for Bed by Mem Fox
This sweet bedtime story will lull your toddler to sleep with it's soft rhyming text. Each page shows a different animal putting its baby to bed. It's a great choice for talking about the names of different animals and their babies. The illustrations are beautiful and your toddler will love looking at them.
Peek-A-Pet by Marie Torres Cimarusti
Here is another fun lift-the-flap book. Each page features an animal playing peek-a-boo. "Guess who? Peek-a-...Open the flap to find out who." "Woof! says the dog." Toddlers will love guessing who's hiding behind the flaps. All of the animals in this book are pets, but for more peek-a-boo fun try Peek-A-Zoo and Peek-A-Moo, also by Marie Torres Cimarusti.
From Head to Toe and The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
Eric Carle has several great books about animals. From Head to Toe has different animals saying what they can do and asking "Can you do it?" This a fun way to get your toddler moving. She will enjoy acting like the animals in the book and she'll learn the names of new animals and body parts while she plays. The Very Busy Spider is the story of a busy spider who is trying to spin a web, but keeps getting interrupted by animals who want to play. It's another great book for talking about animals and the sounds they make. Both of these books have repetitive text throughout so your toddler can join you in reading them.
All of these great books about animals are available to purchase at Amazon. Your child will love learning when you introduce him to these animal books and toddler learning activities!
Great Toddler Learning Books About Animals
This is a series about choosing books to read to your toddler. This series will focus on books that are high quality, age appropriate and high interest to toddlers. The four article will discuss books about letters, counting, shapes and colors, and animals.