Zoo Animals Word Wall Cards for Preschoolers

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These FREE Zoo Animals Word Wall Cards are a handy literacy tool to help your preschoolers learn some zoo animals’ names and how to write them, and they are an excellent complement to your Zoo Animals Theme. Using them to support your teaching could be fun and an effective way to complement your preschooler’s learning process.

Zoo Animals Word Wall Cards for Preschoolers

This FREE printable includes six pages with three cards each, for eighteen cards. The animal word in English is entirely black; underneath, you will find the Spanish name in red. You can download them at the end of this post.

Importance of a Word Wall Card

A word wall is a vital literacy tool that helps your children learn the alphabet, letter sounds, and words related to the theme you use that week or month. It is also a required component in many preschool programs.

Your preschoolers can use all these cards to develop skills such as:

Language development – talking about the pictures in the cards.
One-to-one correspondence – matching magnetic, foam, or wooden letters with the letters on the words or the animals’ names with the pictures.
Pre-writing and Fine Motor Development – copying the words with magnetic, foam, or wooden letters, crayons, markers, or pencils and tracing them with dry-erase markers.
Phonological Awareness – sounding out the beginning letter or the syllables in the words and finding words that rhyme with each word.
Pre-reading – when they observe the picture and say its name (word).

How to Prepare the Zoo Animals Word Wall Cards

These cards do not require a lot of materials to keep the budget under control, and you probably have all or most of them already. You will need:

Zoo Animal Word Wall Cards (found at the end of this post).
printer
white cardstock
scissors
laminator machine
laminator pouches

Print out all the pages using white cardstock. Then, cut out and laminate each card to protect them and make them last longer. Remember, you will need one set of the word wall cards for each center where you want to place them.

Display these cards in apparent areas in the classroom where children can see them. You can also use them during center time and as a large group activity.

How to Use the Zoo Animals Word Wall Cards

Introduce the word you want to use first, holding up the correct picture and telling the students what it is. Repeat the name of the animal several times, emphasizing the first sound. Call on a volunteer to place the card under the correct letter on the word wall, or do it yourself.

Never ask your children to say the animal’s name before you tell them first. Suppose you ask a child to name the word (or the picture), and that child uses the wrong word. In that case, that is the word that will get imprinted in the other children’s minds, and it will be more challenging to correct the mistake than to learn the right word from the beginning because preschoolers learn the first sound they hear.

Place the cards on your word wall under the same alphabet letter of the beginning letter of each word. That way, your students will recognize the correct letters. Use the word wall daily to practice the words in a fun way by chanting and clapping the syllables.

As the children interact with the Zoo Animal Word Wall Cards in the different centers, please encourage them to repeat the beginning sound of the word they use. Do this as often as possible during the day as well.

Other Activities You Can Do

You can use these Zoo Animals Word Wall Cards for other educational activities. Some ideas I can give you are:

Writing Area – Invite your preschoolers to practice their pre-writing skills by matching the words with magnetic, foam, or wooden letters, tracing them with dry-erase, and copying them with crayons, markers, or pencils.

Science Area – Have your children match the words with plastic animals and talk to them about the characteristics of each of the animals.

Block Area – Encourage the children to build enclosures for the animals.

Art Area – Invite them to use the pictures on the cards as models for them to draw or paint their favorite animals.

Library – Encourage the children to look for the exact words in books.

Math Area – Give the children different opportunities to classify the animals in various categories, such as those with two, four, or no legs, those covered in fur, feathers, skin, and categorized mammals, reptiles, birds, etc.

You can also take one set, cut them out, and divide the words from the pictures to create a matching game. Invite the children to match the images with the words. This activity will help them recognize printed words, develop one-to-one correspondence, and create set skills.

Please encourage your students, but don’t force them to do these activities. You want the experience to be a positive one.

You can also combine these Zoo Animals Word Wall Cards with several related activities to avoid boredom and keep the children interested and engaged, such as:

Zoo Letters Matching Game.
Zoo Find the Letter.
Zoo Counting Book.
Zoo Train Number Puzzles.
Zoo Calendar Numbers.
Read Zoo Animals-related books.
Dance to safari music.
Have the children do Zoo Animals-related artwork such as painting, coloring, drawing, or a collage.
Have a zoo animal dress-up day and have a parade.
Create zoo animal masks.
Listen to zoo animal sounds or watch videos about zoo animals on YouTube.
Sing songs about zoo animals.

Zoo Animals-related Stories

Remember that reading and writing go together, and children cannot properly learn one without the other; therefore, you must read to your children daily and change your library and book baskets with theme-related books.

Below are some of my favorite Zoo Animals stories. You can find them at your local library, a used bookstore, or on Amazon. For your convenience, I added my affiliate links to each title. You must click on your favorites to go to the proper page on the Amazon website in seconds.

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 to visit 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.

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 children’s imaginations.

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 and include descriptions of the things, people, and animals found there.

The View at the Zoo by Kathleen Long Bostrom uses a clever twist to tell about why creatures at the zoo behave and sound, grabbing the children’s attention and encouraging them to take a trip to the zoo to see them.

If I Live at the Zoo by Michael Perulli takes children on a journey of what it would be like to live at the zoo among animal friends.

Curious George Goes to the Zoo by H. A. Rey tells the story of George visiting a new kind of zoo where the animals roam free and befriends a baby rhino who seems a little sad.

Good Night Zoo by Adam Gamble is a sweet and educational board book exploring the zoo’s fascinating world of animals.

Zoo Day by Anne Rockwell tells the story of a young boy and his family who visit the zoo for the very first time for a day he will never forget, using simple, lyrical text and bright illustrations that jump off the page and bring the joys of visiting the zoo vividly to life.

Put Me in the Zoo by Robert Lopshire, edited by Dr. Seuss, uses the character named Spot to show a young boy and girl all the exciting things he can do with his spots, using lively rhyme that not only teaches about colors but proves there is a special spot for everyone.

Use every opportunity to give them plenty of variety and choices for their different skills and interests, and most importantly, have fun while doing it. The children will pick up on your excitement, encouraging them to stay engaged.

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