A Day At the Zoo: Preschool Activity Ideas

Heading to the zoo with the under 5 crowd? Here are some fun preschool activity ideas! A fun “At the Zoo” picture scavenger hunt, snack ideas, tips for packing a cute and easy lunch and more!

Ruby overheard a conversation between my husband and I about how it would be fun to take her to the zoo on an upcoming day off of from work. She thought that was a fantastic idea and made sure to remind us weekly about it. Finally the day came for her special trip to the zoo with mommy and daddy! As always, I documented our special day and made quick round up of zoo themed preschool activity ideas for ages 3-5 that you might want to use as well!

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She rarely gets to pack a lunch (and always wants to) so we went all out. I knew those candy eyes would come in handy sometime! We made a banana nut monkey muffin, tiger tangerine, and Ruby’s Special Blend zoo mix.

We went to the grocery store the week before and had fun browsing the aisles looking for animal snacks. Holy smokes, there are so many different ones! Ruby chose Circus Animal Cookies, animal crackers, banana chips, penguin crackers, Annie’s Bunny Crackers, Mini M&Ms, Raisinets, and peanuts. She is a picky eater, but I knew she would eat everything in her snack mix because she made it herself!

This would be a fun preschool activity/snack or birthday party favor! Kids love helping out with food prep and being independent. Just put everything in bowls with little scoops or spoons and let the kids create their own custom mix!

I found a darling zoo scavenger hunt printable that I knew Ruby would love to fill out, packed our lunch in our Igloo cooler, loaded our Step2 Wagon into the van, and headed to the zoo. A special Ruby/Mommy/Daddy trip! We are absolutely in love with our wagon that was sent to us to review, at no cost, as part of the Step2 Ambassador program that I am apart of.

The animals were out and active. It was so fun to see the gibbons swinging from rope to rope and watch the giraffes eating from the trees.

It just so happened that they were all on her animal checklist! She found everything except for the elephant, but she saw a picture of an elephant and we thought that counted.

Dear Sacramento Zoo, you need an elephant! 🙂

When it was time for lunch, we found the play area and some shade.

Our lunch had been carefully stored under the seat in the wagon! What a great use of space. Everything was nice and cool.

This Igloo cooler came with our Step2 Igloo wagon and is very roomy. Plenty of room for water bottles and lunch for our family.

We stayed at the zoo all morning without any complaining of tired legs. She cruised around in her little wagon like a princess in her carriage and loved every minute of it. Other kids did too. Two other toddlers tried climbing in her wagon while we were there.

The flamingos were her favorite animal, of course! I asked her if she was ready to see more animals and she said, “I’d like to look at them a little longer.” And so we did.

I feel like I am so much busier in this stage of my life than I was when her older siblings were this age and I don’t want her to miss out on special outings like this. She is such a sweet little girl and an absolute joy to be around.

We’ve received so many comments about our Step2 Igloo Wagon. It is available exclusively from Sam’s Club and has a removable shade canopy and storage area. The removable insulated cooler can be filled the night before and stored in the refrigerator for quick packing the next morning. It rests under the seat, but is still easily accessible. If you aren’t planning on bringing food or drinks that day, you can use the storage area under the seat for jackets, toys, a diaper bag, etc. The wagon is light weight and easy to pull. This it what my husband liked most about it. That, and the fact that it maneuvers like a dream. The handle also folds under the wagon so that it fits nicely in the back of our van. Be #thecoolmom or #thecooldad this spring and summer with this fun ride!