zoo pretend play | free printables
I will be the first to admit that I'm always on the lookout for fun ideas to do with the kids. I feel like some days there is only so many ways to play with playdough or dolls. When I feel like that I have a couple websites that I love to turn to for some fresh, new ideas. One of those sites is Let's Explore. That site is just jam packed full of great ideas. One of the things I love to check is the free Monthly Ways to Play Download. It's a sheet with ten simple activities to do with your kids.
Last week I was feeling kind of uninspired with our play and checked out February's Ways to Play. One of the ideas was to set up a stuffed animal zoo. I thought this sounded like a lot of fun! I decided to make up some little printables to make it even more fun. First I made some little zoo admission tickets. Then I made up some things for the zookeeper to use. I made up a zookeeper feeding chart to keep track of the animal's feedings and some little tags animal food bags. What fun we had playing zookeeper and ticket master to get into the zoo.
We attached the animal food cards to paper lunch bags and we filled them with different colored puff balls which was a great sorting activity! We loved making up reasons why a certain animal should have a certain color food. Like of course the monkeys got the yellow puff balls. We attached the zookeeper feeding chart to a makeshift clipboard and my little one loved checking off which animals had been fed.
