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47 Fun Zoo Crafts for Kids
Your little ones are going to love creating their favorite animals with these fun zoo crafts for kids.
Ideas to Make Zoo Crafts for Kids
If your school or class is taking a trip to your local zoo, you are likely trying to build up excitement for the day! You probably want to give students information about all of the zoo animals that they will see. Even if you have no plans to visit a zoo any time soon, there is a animal for everyone! Crafts with a zoo theme are a perfect way to teach and get children excited about all they will be learning. There are so many different animals to choose from, so your students will never get bored! Whether you work with older kids or younger kids, you will find something on this list to suit your needs. Kids of all ages will love creating the animals they are learning about at school!
Polar Bear and Panda Bear Crafts
These bears may not live too close to each other, but they have similar body types and faces! So, if you like one of these crafts for one, you could easily adjust it to make the other bear. Just switch the colors around!
- Paper Plate Polar Bear: These paper plate polar bears are adorable and perfect for younger and older children. Paper plate crafts are always a big hit!
- Popsicle Stick Polar Bear: Craft sticks are another inexpensive craft supply! These zoo crafts for kids are also perfect for younger children who have other hands assisting them!
- Pom Pom Polar Bear Painting: This craft uses pom poms for this adorable painting and uses googly eyes so this cute polar bear can see!
- Paper Polar Bear with Template: This polar bear with an inexpensive template is an easy-to-put-together idea!
- Cotton Ball Polar Bear: This zoo craft is perfect if you are looking for a project with a free template or printout! Such a creative idea.
- Cotton Ball Polar Bear Face: This great craft is perfect for those looking to use up some extra plates or cotton balls. It is super simple to put together.
- Paper Plate Panda Bear Face with Template: This craft idea comes with free printable templates!
- Panda Bear Hugging Tree: This craft lets you make a cute panda bears hugging a homemade bamboo tree!
- Fork Panda Painting: Perfect! Grab some construction paper and paint this panda with those eating utensils!
- Panda Bear Heart: This panda bear heart is such a fun way to make a thoughtful gift for the animal lovers in your life!
- Chalk Art Panda Bear: This project comes with a free panda face printable. Color them any color that you would like and use chalk for the rest of the face!
Monkey and Gorilla Crafts
Primates are the favorite animal of so many little artists and learners. These great ideas are sure to appease all of the monkey and gorilla lovers you know!
- Paper Plate Monkey: If super specific craft supplies are hard to come by, paper plate crafts are an easy solution! These monkeys are simple to make and perfect for kids of all ages.
- Monkey Headband: Need a craft that also works for pretend play? This monkey craft is perfect!
- Hanging Monkey with Banana: These hanging monkeys are so adorable! A lot of crafts just include the animal, but his one has the habitat and a monkey snack involved! Grab your glue sticks and get busy!
- Watercolor Gorilla Printable: This gorilla uses a free printable and involves a decent amount of scissor cutting. However, once the gorilla is put together, little artists are free to paint them in whatever way they wish!
- Gorilla and Me Handprints: This cute idea shows little hands just how big the hands of a gorilla are! Glue, construction paper, and white paint are all you need for this incredibly simple craft.
- Comb Painting Gorilla: Have you ever painted with a comb? Well, now you can start with this fun project! The comb paint brush adds a nice texture to the painting. It makes it look almost like fur or hair! Comb your gorilla’s fur with black paint and whatever combs you have on hand!
Lion and Tiger Crafts
Two of the fiercest animals around make some pretty cute crafts! These crafts don’t show how fierce and fiery these two animals are, but they sure are fun to make. Students will love seeing these two big cats with friendly faces.
- Handprint Lion: This handprint lion is a super simple way to personalize craft time. Perfect for older kids to do on their own and appropriate for younger ones with a little assistance.
- Scissor Lion Craft: This craft is a fun way to practice scissor skills! Younger hands who are still getting used to using scissors will love this one.
- Paper Plate Lion: Paper plates to the rescue! Paint and googly eyes are added for the face for extra fun.
- Tiger Puppet: When crafting, paper bags are a must-have item. This tiger puppet will make pretend play so much more fun! The tiger stripes can be drawn on, or use big googly eyes for added fun!
- Paper Plate Tiger: This paper plate tiger requires orange, white, and black construction paper, orange tissue paper, glue, scissors, and paper plates! .
- Construction Paper Painted Tiger: Another creative way to make this striped zoo animal! Zoo crafts for kids wouldn’t be complete without a painted tiger.
Penguin and Hippo Crafts
These two animals both love spending their time in water! These crafts offer a variety of required supplies and skill sets. There is something for everyone.
- Cotton Ball Penguin: This cotton ball penguin uses a free penguin template for the body! There are a few different penguin body templates to choose from, so each artist can pick the one that they would like to use.
- Penguin Hats: Waddle your way through play time with this adorable hat!
- Paint Splat Penguin: This sort of craft is ideal for even the tiniest of hands. Construction paper, googly eyes, and white paint are all the supplies you need!
- Heart Hippo: A perfect Valentine’s or birthday gift for the hippo lovers.
- Paper Plate Hippo: This paper plate hippo is easy to complete and gives you multiple options for the printable template!
- Newspaper Hippo: Use up all your extra or leftover newspaper for this fun project!
Elephant and Giraffe Crafts
If you are looking for quick giraffe crafts or easy elephant crafts, look no further. This list has plenty of paper or paper plate crafts for both animals if that is what you have on hand.
- Paper Plate Elephant: There is a paper plate craft available for nearly every animal. Elephants included!
- 3D Elephant: Watch out for the pop out trunk with this one!
- Tissue Paper Elephant: This easy paper plate craft uses construction paper and tissue paper to make this gray elephant.
- Paper Plate Giraffe: Need another simple paper plate zoo animal craft? This giraffe is so easy.
- Giraffe Headband: Get all your giraffe lovers together and have fun pretending to be this tall zoo animal!
- Giraffe Paper Crown: This giraffe crown is so much fun and comes with a video showing you how to make it!
Zebra and Camel Crafts
These two animals each have a pretty unique feature! Zebras have black stripes and camels have large humps on their backs! Despite the uniqueness of those, these crafts are not difficult to complete.
- Handprint Zebra: If you are looking for a personalized craft with a printable template, this craft is perfect.
- Draw the black stripes on the hand with a black marker and call it a day!
- Lacing Zebra Craft: This craft is a great way for little hands to work on some fine motor skills.
- Paper Roll Zebra: One thing we all have a lot of? Cardboard tubes! Be sure to collect these as they make a great craft supply.
- Torn Paper Dessert Camel: This blog gives a few different ideas for some camel crafts!
- Printable Camel Craft: Camels are pretty hard to draw and cut out! This one has a printable to make the job a little easier.
- Handprint Camel: This easy peasy craft is ideal if you are looking for something quick. All you need is brown paint, a black marker, and some paper or another surface to paint it on!
More Fun Zoo Crafts
Looking for crafts for different types of animals than the ones listed above? Check out the list below for a few more ideas!
- Paper Plate Parrot: Parrots are so colorful and this craft lets little artists use a bunch of different colors.
- Handprint Parrot: A variety of colored construction paper, glue, and googly eyes are all you need for this colorful craft!
- Cardboard Walrus: While these may not be as popular as other animals, this craft sure will be! The heart noses are adorable.
- Cupcake Liner Walrus: Cupcake liners are so versatile and this craft is an adorable way to use those up.
- Pasta Fish Craft: What is a better way to use extra pasta than on a fun craft for children or students? This fish craft is perfect for those seeking a little artistic freedom!
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