Safari Theme

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

Find more Wild Animal Activities for Pre-K

Books

Check here for a complete list of Safari Animal Books

Wild Animals Large Motor Games

Elephant Conga Line

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.

Animal Action Safari

Call out different safari animals, and children move like them:

Lion – prowl and roar
Elephant – stomp and swing arms like a trunk
Zebra – gallop in place
Giraffe – stretch arms up high and walk on tiptoes
Cheetah – run in place
Monkey – swing arms and jump

Handa’s Surprise: Interacting with the Story

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.

Wild Animals Art Activities

African Drum Art

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.

Binocular Craft

Tape two toilet paper rolls together, paint them, and attach yarn for a safari adventure!

Wild Animals Literacy Activities

Journals

Children create a journal page by drawing a picture and dictating sentences about their picture to a teacher. Get these journal pages in the Pre-K Writing Journals Bundle.

Class Book: “I Went On Safari”

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.

Story Retelling

This is an activity that goes with any theme. Choose a book that goes with the theme, and have the children retell the story.
Read the blog post here for details: story retelling

Elephant Bingo Stamping Game

Read about and print the Elephant Bingo Game here.

Wild Animal Roll & Write Game

Read about and print the Wild Animal Roll & Write Game here.

Letter Matching Game

Children find the matching letters on the peacock’s feathers. This activity is part of the Wild Animal Theme Pack.

wild animal safari letter matching printable

Wild Animals Math Activities

Roll and Cover Game

This roll and cover game can be used to practice counting and numeral recognition. Read about and print it here: Roll and Cover Games

Pattern Block Animals

Children match pattern block shapes to the shapes on the mats to make wild animals. Get the Safari Pattern Block Mats here.

Wild Animal Grid Games

Read about and print the Wild Animal Grid Games here.

Wild Animal Numbers Game

Children count and sort the number cards onto each number mat. Includes 1-10. This activity is part of the Wild Animal Theme Pack.

Wild Animals Science Activities

Scent Hunt

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. If you have students with perfume allergies or asthma, be sure to use a natural scented oil, such as lemon oil.