Dear Zoo Activity Pack | EYFS / Reception

Inspired by “Dear Zoo” by Rod Campbell

Bring the classic story Dear Zoo to life in your Early Years classroom with this engaging, hands-on resource pack! Perfect for Reception and EYFS settings, this comprehensive bundle supports literacy, fine motor skills, movement, and early maths through fun, story-linked activities.

What’s Included:

1. Animal Movement Cards (8 cards)
   Encourage gross motor skills and storytelling as children imitate the movements of the story’s animals.

2. Trace and Colour Worksheets (8 A4 sheets)
   Each sheet features a simple outline of an animal to trace and colour, plus the animal’s name in lowercase for early writing practice.

3. Cut and Paste Activity
   Children cut out the animals and match them to the correct box with its name — great for developing scissor skills and word recognition.

4. Bingo Game (20 cards)
   A fun small-group activity! Each bingo card features six different animals from the story.

5. Line Tracing Sheets
   Help the animals find their way back to their crates by tracing simple paths — perfect for pre-writing skills.

6. Display Labels and Word Cards
   Adjective cards (for describing animals)
   Animal picture cards
   Name and image cards

   Each set follows a colour-coded border system (e.g. all lion-related labels share the same colour) to support sorting and display organisation.

7. “What Am I?” Guessing Game
   Children look closely at magnified sections of animal images (textures and patterns) to guess which animal it is — encourages observation and language development.

8. Animal-to-Crate Matching Game
   Match each animal to its correct crate, reinforcing story recall and vocabulary.

9. Size Comparison Activity (3 differentiated sheets)
   Support early maths and comparative language with prompts such as “The heaviest animal is the…”.

10. Counting Activity
    Count the number of legs on each animal, represent it in a ten frame, and write the numeral in the box.

11. Clip Cards (1–10)
    Strengthen counting and fine motor control with themed clip cards featuring animals from Dear Zoo.

12. and 13. Movement Dice (A4 & A3)
    Children explore how their bodies move in different ways, becoming more aware of space, speed, and shape.

Skills Covered:

• Story sequencing and recall
• Early writing and letter recognition
• Fine and gross motor skills
• Counting and number representation
• Descriptive language and comparison
• Observation and problem-solving
• Body Awareness
• Gross M

Perfect for:

• EYFS / Reception classrooms
• Literacy and story-themed centres
• Whole-class, small-group, or individual learning

A creative and comprehensive way to explore “Dear Zoo” — combining movement, storytelling, literacy, and maths in one delightful pack!

Updates:

• 09/12/2025: The resources Dear Zoo Movement Dice (A4) and Dear Zoo Movement Dice (A3) were added.

If you like this pack, check out:

• Guess the animal - Dear Zoo (Canva template + PDF)