Almost every child I know loves play dough! In addition to being great for strengthening hand muscles, it’s just fun to play with. It was the perfect “base” for a simple forest animal small world activity.
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printable forest animal activity
Activity goals
In addition to having fun, this forest animal small world allows children to explore these early learning concepts:
- Fine motor skills
- Vocabulary development
- Oral language development
- Letter and word knowledge
Materials
Labeled forest animals free printable (grab it HERE)
Play dough
Mini pine cones
Laminator (optional)
Laminator pouches (optional)
Prep
Print out the labeled forest animal cards. I’d suggest cutting them out and laminating them, as they’ll be sturdier that way.
Directions
For this open-ended small world activity, let the kids lead the way! Place all of the items out on a tray or a table, then see what they do. I think this would be perfect after reading a forest animal book, or after learning a bit about animals that live in the forests nearby.
Children might use the printable animals to tell silly stories. They could possibly use the play dough to create a forest floor for the animals to play on. Perhaps the mini pine cones (or regular-sized pine cones, if you have them) could act as the trees in the forest.
Related: Winter Small World Play
Other ideas
These printable forest animals could be used in a variety of other activities, too.
- Place them in a pocket chart or a file folder. Then the kids could use them as a mini word wall, of sorts.
- Have children match up small animal toys to the appropriate printable animal.
- Bring out some letter tiles, then help the children make the animal words.
How would your children use these printable forest animals? Would a play dough small world be fun for them?
More #TeachECE activities around a forest theme
Be sure to pop over and see what the rest of the Early Childhood Education team has to share –
Forest Animal Play Dough Small World by Fun-A-Day
Pine cones, forest animals, and playdough – sounds like the perfect afterschool combination for play and learning.
We will be using your animals as game pieces. They are super cute.
I love the whimsical forest animal printables! So cute. Our kids would love to make a small world with those as their inspiration. Thank you!
I love the idea of using play dough to help the animals stand up to play.
Such an easy and fun work! I love how you laminated the animals. That will really make them last!