Safari preschool activities and crafts

Preschool and Kindergarten African Safari Activities and Games

Large Group

Most children have seen the movie Lion King. Talk about the movie to get them thinking about African animals. Introduce the word safari.

What is a safari? (A safari is an adventurous trip to Africa to observe and photograph wildlife in their natural habitat and to experience African culture.)

Where would you go on a safari. How does the landscape look like? What would you find there? (eg. Things like grassland, lakes for the animals, trees)

What types of animals might you find on a safari? (eg. Elephants, lions, rhinoceros, zebras, hippos, cheetahs, chimpanzee, monkeys.)

Provide colorful picture books and photos of the animals and people going on a safari.

Story Time: We All Went On a Safari

Arusha, Mosi, Tumpe and their Maasai friends travel through the grasslands of Tanzania and count animals along the way. The children encounter all sorts of animals including elephants, lions, zebras, and monkeys, while counting from one to ten in both English and Swahili. Children will learn about the meaning of the Swahili names for the African animals, look at a map and learn interesting facts about Tanzania and the Maasai people.

Geography 

Together locate Africa and Tanzania on a map or globe.

Preschool Activities: 

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I Went On Safari - Oral Language Skills

Print African animals pictures. Introduce the word ‘safari’ to the children. Choose a picture without showing it to the childen. Say, “I went on safari, and what did I see? I saw a (describe the animal) example tall animal with a long neck looking at me!” Let children guess the animals. Show the picture to the children and let them descibe the animal. What color is it, how many legs does it have, do they know what the animal eats? Next, let children move like the animals. 

Dramatic Play

Block Center
Add some jungle animals to your block center together with plastic trees, blue paper for lakes, and artifical grass.

African Safari Pretend Play 

Preschool Activities: 

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Cardboard Jeep

Create a simple jeep out of a cardboard box.

Preschool Activities: 

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Tape pictures of a variety of African animals around the room. 

Provide safari hats, and toy cameras for children to use on their safari trip. 

Safari hat crafts from Widget Worm

Preschool Activities: 

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Let children make some binoculars out of toilet paper rolls.

Preschool Activities: 

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Circle Game

Going on a Safari 

(chant)

Going on a safari with the beat in your jeep,
Think of a wild animal that you'd like to meet.
That you'd like to meet (Have a child name a safari animal.)
A (lion), a (lion), she wants to see a (lion)!

Continue the chant until everyone has had a chance to name an animal.

Elephant Craft (Fine Motor Skills)

Preschool Activities: 

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Patterns and craft description available inside our KidsSoup Resource Library. Not a member yet? Sign up now! Only $2.50 a month!

Movement Activities (Gross Motor Skills)

Preschool Activities: 

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Children stomp like elephants, walk tall like giraffes, prowl like lions, and skip like zebras around the room behind each other in a line.

Giraffes Story Time and Activities: 

Preschool Activities: 

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Outdoor Wild Animal Hunt

Glue pictures of African animals on construction paper. Hide a picture of each animal in various places outside. Before going outside talk about the weather in the Africa. Discuss that the animals and people need to protect themselves from the hot strong sun. The animals look for shade from trees, roll in mud, or cool down in the water. People wear sun hats and drink lots of water. Explain to children that you will go on a safari outside. Invite children to walk around looking through their binoculars to find some wild animals that are hiding. After 5 minutes call children back to your "camp". Ask children which kind of animals they saw on their safari. Do they remember where the zebra was? Ask one child to go and catch the animal. Repeat with the remaining animals.

View more samples of our Safari inspired activities and games for preschool and kindergarten.

Preschool Activities: 

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