Safari Theme

~ Pre-K & Preschool theme ideas for learning about African animals ~

Sections for This Theme

Books
Rhymes
Songs
Activities
Printables
Links
Resources

Books

Rhymes

The Elephant

The elephant has a trunk for a nose
And up and down is the way it goes
He wears such a saggy, baggy hide
Do you think two elephants could fit inside?

Songs

Alphabet Zoo CD: Jack Hartmann

The Jaguar: Mrs. Jones Sing Along Songs

Hear the Animals: Mrs. Jones Sing Along Songs

Going to the Zoo: traditional song

Kourilengay (West Africa): Multicultural Rhythm Stick Fun by Kimbo

Carnival of the Animals: Classical music by Camille Saint-Saens

Activities

Elephant Conga Line

[Large Motor]
Children walk like an elephant on all four legs, trying to keep their balance while lifting a front leg and a back leg. We made a line of elephants and tried walking around the circle as a group.

Lion Hunt

[Large Motor]

Going on a lion hunt. But I’m not afraid! ‘Cause I’m smart and I’m strong, And I’m very, very brave.	[Recite 1st part] I see some grass. It’s very tall grass. Can’t go over it. Can’t go under it. Gotta go through it. (Make noises by brushing palms together.)
[Repeat 1st Part] I see a tree. A very tall tree. Can’t go over it. Can’t go under it. Gotta chop it down. (Make chopping movements with hands.)	[Repeat 1st part] I see some mud. Ooey-gooey mud. Can’t go over it. Can’t go under it. Gotta go through it. (Make squishy sounds with hands clasped together.)
[Repeat 1st part] I see a cave. A dark spooky cave. Can’t go over it. Can’t go under it. Gotta go inside it. (Wave open hands in front of eyes.)	[Repeat 1st part] I see something furry. Something big and furry! (SCREAM) It’s a LION!! RUN!!!
Run out of the cave, Through the mud puddle, Over the chopped down tree, Through the grassy place, Run inside and slam the door.

African Drums

[Art, Music]
This is a good activity to go with the book, Jungle Drums, by Graeme Base. Children make drums out of drink mix cans and use pencils or dowel sticks for drumsticks. A piece of paper is wrapped and glued around the can. Children decorate the drum with animal skin patterns:
Elephant: wrinkled (crumpled) paper painted gray
Zebra: black stripes painted on white paper
Giraffe: brown spots painted on yellow paper
Cheetah: small black spots painted on tan paper
Hippopotamus: painted gray-blue
Rhinoceros: painted gray
Hyena: black and brown spots painted on tan paper
If you don’t have drink mix cans, you can make quiet drums by decorating a paper plate, and use plastic straws for drumsticks.

Handa’s Surprise: Interacting with the Story

[Literacy, Large Motor]
After reading the story, Handa’s Surprise, we talk about how Handa carries fruit to her friend. The children try to balance a basket of play fruit on their head the way Handa did in the story.

Class Book: “I Went On Safari”

[Literacy]
Children choose an African grasslands animal to draw on the page. Each page says: “I went on safari, and what did I see? I saw a ____ looking at me!” The pages are put together to make the class book.

Letter Game

[Literacy]
Each child has a strip of paper with about 8 letters on it. Children take turns drawing a letter out of a bag. When a letter is pulled out, everyone stamps out that letter on their paper with a safari animal stamp.

Story Retelling

[Literacy]
Choose a Safari-themed book that you would consider good literature (good characters, plot, beginning, middle, end, etc.) Show the book to the children and tell them to think about what happened in the story, and the people (characters) and places they saw in the story. Think about what each character said. Give each child a piece of paper and ask them to draw something they remember from the story. Remind them that this should not be a picture of their cat or their friends, but only pictures of things from the book. After each child has illustrated the story, have them retell the story in their own words. Either record each child with a voice recorder or write their dictation on the page.

Elephant Stamping Game

[Math, Literacy]
Write a letter or numeral on each elephant, and make a copy for each child. Children will draw a number or letter card from a stack (or roll a die), find that letter/numeral on their mat, and stamp it out. You can use rubber stamps or bingo dot markers. As an alternative, you can have children draw an “X” over the elephant if stamps or bingo dot markers are not available.

Elephant Bingo

Tangram Animals

[Math]
Children match tangrams to the shapes on the tangram mats to make African animals. [These mats came from: Tangram Animals A to Z, by Learning Resources]

Giraffe Play Dough Counting Mats

[Math]
Read more about the giraffe play dough math mats at the link.

Stamp Patterns

[Math]
Children make patterns with safari animal rubber stamps.

Animal Skins Graph

[Math, Science]
Each child chooses a photo of an African animal. We graph the animal photos according to the animal’s skin patterns: stripes, spots, or solid.

Scent Hunt

[Science]
We talk about ways lions use their sense of smell. Cotton balls are placed around the room: a few unscented cotton balls and some with scented oil. The children pretend to be lions on the hunt by crawling around, and use their noses to find the scented ones.

Zoo Field Trip

[Science]
During a field trip to the zoo, children look for animals on the checklist and mark them off as they find them. (The pictures can be marked with a crayon or a sticker dot.)
Zoo Field Trip Checklist