If your little one loves to play KneeBouncers’ Peek-a-Zoo, extend the play at home and create your own Peek-a-Zoo Safari! All you need is a few simple supplies, and your child can make a fun pair of binoculars to use as they search for wild animals around the home!
What you’ll need:
- Scissors
- Tape
- A hole punch
- Paper or two toilet paper tubes
- Markers (optional)
- Stickers (optional)
- Ribbon
- A ruler
- Pencil
Create Your Binoculars
Step 1
Cut the paper out into two rectangles measuring 6 inches wide by 3 inches high. *If you’re using toilet paper tubes, skip this step or use the paper to cover the tubes and make them colorful!
Step 2
Optional Step: Allow your child to color or decorate the paper or toilet paper tubes with markers and stickers.
Roll each slip of paper to form a tube. Then, take a piece of tape and run it along the seam of the tube. You can use any tape, but we recommend keeping some fun, colorful washi tape in your play-at-home arts and crafts supply kit!
Step 3
Tape the tubes together. Affix one piece of tape at the top and another at the bottom. Now, punch a hole in the side of each tube.
Step 4
Take your ribbon. String it through the hole from the hole punch and knot. Then, take the other end of the ribbon and do the same thing on the other side. You’ve now created a unique pair of paper binoculars.
Now it’s time to play! Set up stuffed animals in your children’s rooms or around the house, and have them go on a safari. Talk about what they see!
Other ways to extend play at home
- When kids spot an animal, ask them what letter begins its name.
- Have children act like the animal once they spot it.
- Ask your child what each animal likes to eat.
- Look up additional facts about the animals online.
- Visit your local zoo, nature center, or natural history museum.
- Watch a live zoo feed of real animals: San Diego Zoo, Smithsonian National Zoo, Bronx Zoo, and Houston Zoo are just a few zoos that host live cams of animals!
- Use pictures of animals or animal figures in place of stuffed animals.
- Go for a walk around the neighborhood and search for animals in your community.
- Use a pair of child binoculars and teach them how to use them.
- Talk about various animal habitats. Use natural materials, play dough, and recyclables to build animal habitats.
- Build a LEGO zoo.
Updated June 24, 2024, by L. Elizabeth Forry
