Zoo & safari animals for kids

What's here

Twelve zoo and safari headliners: the lion, the elephant, the giraffe, and the rest of the crew your toddler points at from the stroller. Tap an animal and it roars, trumpets, hops, or balances, then shows a short true fact you can read in one breath.

This is the theme for the week before a zoo trip, the week after one, or the long stretch in between when the zoo is closed and the pointing continues.

Meet these first

• Lion. His roar can be heard from five miles away. Practice yours at a considerate volume.
• Elephant. Uses her trunk to drink, snack, and give herself a bath.
• Giraffe. Has a purple tongue longer than your arm for grabbing the top leaves.
• Zebra. Every zebra's stripe pattern is one of a kind, like a fingerprint.
• Kangaroo. Her baby is called a joey and rides snug inside her pouch.
• Hippo. Can hold his breath and tiptoe along the river bottom underwater.
• Flamingo. Stands, and even falls asleep, balanced on one skinny leg.
• Panda. Munches crunchy bamboo for hours and hours, almost all day.

Gorilla, monkey, rhino, and crocodile complete the dozen.

How to play (60 seconds)

Ask your toddler to find the one with the longest neck. Then the stripy one, then the one standing on one leg. Descriptions before names: they're learning "tall" and "stripy" at the same time as "giraffe" and "zebra." Round two is copycat: stand on one leg like a flamingo, thump your chest like a gorilla, hold your arm up like a trunk. Wobbling is part of the game.

Good to know

Zoo animals pull double duty for vocabulary because they invite describing words, not just names. Big, tall, stripy, loud, and slow all get natural reps here, and those little words do more everyday work than "rhinoceros" ever will. Say the describing word as they point, and let them echo whichever part they can.

Keep exploring

Print the free first-words cards from the printables page and you've got a matching game for the car ride to the actual zoo.

Related trails: farm animals for the domesticated version of this hub, ocean animals for what the aquarium building holds, birds for the aviary, and dinosaurs for the giants that came first. The homepage lists every theme.