• Zoo animal games help students learn more about animals such as giraffes.zoo image by Mat Hayward from Fotolia.com
  
  Learning the difference between zoo animals, farm animals and pets often appears in preschool curriculum expectations. Zoo animals serve as a constant source of excitement and fascination for preschoolers. Harness that excitement with games that help students learn more about the animals while still enjoying preschool-appropriate fun. Preschool zoo games help students learn more about animal food, babies, habitats, movements and tracks.
  
  

Guess Who Cards

• Create a Guess Who card game to help preschoolers become familiar with the types of animals found at a zoo. Include animals from different habitats normally found at the zoo such as African, Amazonian, Asian and North American. Also include those from different classifications such as mammals, reptiles, birds and fish. Preschoolers try to guess the animal based on seeing only a small portion of it.
  
  Print or clip pictures of animals from websites or magazines to glue on index cards or pieces of card stock. Staple a second index card or piece of card stock over the first. Cut a hole in it to reveal a portion of the animal that would not immediately give away its identity. Kids view the cards and attempt to guess the animal without lifting the covering containing the hole. By playing with a partner, kids can keep score to see who guesses the most correct animals.
  
  

Zoo Charades

• Zoo Charades works the same way as regular charades. After an introductory book reading, going to the zoo or viewing a video, preschoolers act out animals for the class to guess. Use a book about the zoo or an actual zoo guidebook for choosing the animals.
  
  One at a time, a student closes his eyes, turns his back to the class and flips through the book stopping to point at one picture. Once he stops, he looks at the picture to find out which animal he must act out for the class. The student hands the book to the teacher so the teacher knows which animal he will act out. Individually or in teams, the class attempts to guess the animal.
  
  

Matching Zoo Animals

• A Matching Zoo Animals folder game might have students matching baby animals to the adult parent, footprints to the animal or animals to habitats. While animal mothers and babies or animal habitats might seem the obvious choice for preschool children, animal tracks have distinctive patterns that even a preschool child might begin to identify using a matching game.
  
  For all of the games, after acquiring the matching pictures, glue one category of picture into the folder and the others onto index cards. Students play individually or with partners. Shuffle the cards and place them upside down next to the folder. Turn one card up at a time and attempt to match it to the correct picture in the folder.
  
  

Zoo Animal Relay

• Zoo Animal Relay offers an active learning game where students must identify an animal picture, its movements, food and habitat. Gather animal pictures along with pictures of the animal's food and habitat. Divide students into relay teams.
  
  Place a bucket of animal pictures in the center of the room. Several feet away, place a larger container holding the animal food pictures. The larger container allows students to see them without digging through a small bucket. On a wall nearby, place the habitat pictures. The first student runs to the bucket, grabs an animal picture and runs to the food container moving in a style similar to that animal. At the food bucket, he grabs food that animal eats then runs to place the animal's picture and food under the correct habitat. After running back to his team moving like that animal, he tags the next person who repeats the process. The first team to have every member complete the race correctly wins.