Zoo Letters Matching Game for Preschoolers

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This FREE Zoo Letters Matching Game is a fun hands-on activity to help preschoolers develop their letter identification skills as they match the uppercase and lowercase letters, and also the perfect addition to your literacy lesson planning.

Zoo Letters Matching Game for Preschoolers

This printable includes 26 uppercase letter tiles that show the entrance of a zoo and matching lowercase letters that show an animal whose name starts with each specific letter. You can get it at the end of this post.

Zoo Letters Matching Game Uses

This game is great for working on pre-reading skills reinforcing letter recognition, uppercase, and lowercase letter discrimination, and fine motor skills, but also it strengthens the children’s concentration and one-to-one correspondence development, and get familiar with the shape of the letters, in both, lowercase and uppercase versions. It can also be used for other purposes such as:

Phonological Awareness and Phonics

Letter Sounds – Use the tiles to show the children the sound that each letter makes.

Mystery Bag – place three zoo animals inside the bag. Have a volunteer reach inside the bag and take an animal out. Then the child needs to name the animal and match it with the beginning letter of its name.

Say a Word – show the children a letter tile, and have them race their hands to say a word that starts with that letter. You can do this as an individual, small group, or large group activity.

Letter Sounds Game – divide the class into two groups. Pronounce a letter sound, and have a member of each group run to a pile of the letter tiles, and pick out the corresponding letter. To make the game more challenging you can ask them to pick the matching pair of the corresponding letter.

Vocabulary and Letter Sounds – Provide copies of the letter tiles to each child, and have them create a book gluing the matching pairs to pieces of white or construction paper. Have them copy or glue the animal names under the tiles. Then staple the pages in alphabetical order. This is an easy way to have them learn how to write and spell the animal names and practice their letter sounds at home or on the go.

Clapping Syllables – After introducing the name of each animal, have them clap the syllables of the names with you.

Scavenger Letter Hunt – You can show them or say the name of one letter at a time, and have them look around the classroom or in books or magazines for other words that start with the same letter.

Science

You can use this game to teach your children about the different zoo animals that are included, adding science to your literacy activity. This game can also be integrated into your zoo unit for a more in-depth study.

Writing

Some of the activities that will help your preschoolers develop their fine motor skills, learn the name of the animals, and exercise their imagination are:

Write the names of the animals and have the children trace or copy the names with crayons, markers, or pencils.
Have them match the different letters with foam, wooden, or plastic letters.
Create a group story using one or multiple animals shown in the cards.

Social Studies

You can invite a zookeeper or veterinarian to come and talk to the children about the job they do and the characteristics of the different animals, or visit your local zoo to see the animals in person and the different roles that the staff at the zoo perform.

Art

You can have the children draw or paint their favorite zoo animal, or make a collage with zoo animal pictures.

Block Area

You can include zoo animals in your block area and invite the children to build a zoo or cages using blocks.

Sensory Table

You can prepare the sensory table with a small container with water, plastic “grass”, mini fences, mini trees, small zoo animals, pebbles, small branches, and any other type of materials you think appropriate, and let the children create a mini zoo for these animals.

Outside Classroom

I can think of a few gross motor activities that children can do in the playground. These are:

Have the children imitate the movement of the different animals and have them have races moving like them.
Print two sets of tiles and place the uppercase sets at one end of the playground and the lowercase set at the opposite end, divide the children into two teams and have each member of each team take turns and run to match one uppercase with its matching lowercase letter. The team that finishes matching all the letters first, wins the race.
Hide mini zoo animals all over the playground. Divide the class into two teams. Give each member of the team a letter, then let them run to find the animal whose name starts with the letter they have. The team that finds more matches, wins the race.

This Zoo Letters Matching Game is an excellent resource to be used as an individual and/or sent-home activity, but also as an addition to different centers such as the Literacy, Writing, Science and Library Centers, and Quiet area.

How to Prepare the Zoo Letters Matching Game

This game is very easy to prep. You just need to print the pages on white cardstock, cut out the letter tiles, and laminate them, for durability.

The materials you need to prepare this game are:

Printer.
White Cardstock.
Scissors.
Laminator and laminating sheets.

Zoo Storybooks

Below are some of my favorite books about the zoo. If you don’t have any available, you can go to your local library, or used book store and use my links on the pictures to quickly get them from Amazon. Get as many as you can, read them to your preschoolers, and fill your library and centers with them.

Zoo Time by D. S. Park. This book uses stunning illustrations to bring the zoo’s animals to life.

The View at the Zoo by Kathleen Long Bostrom. With a clever twist and a new, sturdy board book format, this book will have children begging for a trip to the zoo to see the animals in person.

1, 2, 3 to the Zoo by Eric Carle. This book combines simple counting with unusual illustrations of animals. counting.

I Want to Be a Zookeeper by Dan Liebman. This book is a realistic insight into the working day of a zookeeper, using color photographs, to help children understand what’s involved in this job, learn to respect the importance of doing a job well, and appreciate the contributions these workers make in the zoo animal lives.

It’s a Crazy Day at the Zoo by Stacey Lee Doyle. This is an exciting and entertaining tale designed to captivate the imaginations of children.

Lou’s Zoo and Winston Too by JoAnn M. Dickinson. This book beautifully illustrates the value of embracing our differences and accepting one another just as we are, using lovable zoo animals, each with their unique personalities.

A Visit to the Zoo by Blake A. Hoena. The text and photographs in this book take children on a visit to the zoo including descriptions of the things, people, and animals found there.

Pin It For Later

If you are in a rush and don’t have time to read the post and download the printable but want to save it for later, pin this to your Literacy board on Pinterest for later.

I hope you enjoy this free game, and help your preschoolers have fun while learning their letters. To get the FREE Zoo Letters Matching Game, you just have to click on the link below.

Be happy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.

Love,