5 Animal Games for Kids

Animal games for kids are a guaranteed fun time for your children and for you. We'll give you the best ideas to play with them.

Reviewed and approved by the psychologist María Alejandra Castro Arbeláez.

Written by Leticia María Fernández Gutiérrez

Last update: 27 December, 2022

“Dogs go woof and cows go moo.” Does this sound familiar to you? Animal games for kids are part of the daily life of children and parents. Here, we want to leave you some game ideas for you to try with your little ones.

Animal games for children are a whole world of fun and are as complex or simple as you want to make them. Children really enjoy discovering the animal kingdom, so drawing their attention to games will be easy.

Teaching is always a challenge. Therefore, we want to give you some tricks in the form of a game so that you can have a fun time learning about animals.

Before you start playing…

• First, recognize the level of knowledge of your children. A child as a toddler isn’t the same as a child in the last year of elementary school. It’s best that you adapt the games to the age of your children while also proposing challenges that they must overcome.
• Find activities that are fun for you, too. If you get bored, they’re likely to get bored. Taking the risk of turning the game into a chore is easy but it’s not what you’re looking to do.
• Let your children develop the game. You set the rules, but you’ll enjoy much more watching how they carry things out throughout the game. If you cut them off and dictate the way forward, they’ll soon get bored.
• Imagination is power. Break free from the established rules and get into the fun with your children without direction. When you play, you know how it starts, but not how it ends. Enjoy the freedom of being a child again, together with your children.

These tips can help make your playing time fun. Your kids can also make up their own animal games. Encourage them to do so and participate in their magical world of games and animals.

5 animal games for kids

Here are five ideas for animal games for children. Each game can last as long as you want and you can make the modifications that you consider. Remember that the important thing is to learn while having fun.

1. Giving their voices back to the animals. The animals have lost their voice. We’re the only ones who can help you. We must find the voice of each animal and give it back to them. To do this, we’ll join each card with a drawing of an animal on it with the card that corresponds to its voice.
2. Animal families. With this game, the aim is to learn which family of animals exists. Your children are the baby animals and they look for their family. We’re going to give them clues about their family of origin: How they reproduce, where they live, what they eat, or how they move. You can use mimicry, noises, and everything you can think of.

   

3. Creating a new pet. You want a new pet at home and you’re going to create it. You’ll use different animal parts and sounds and draw it. You have to name it and invent what it eats, how it behaves, and all the characteristics that you can imagine.
4. Animal charades. In a container, you’ll put small pieces of paper with the names of animals. You should all know the animals because, while taking turns, you’ll take out a piece of paper and you’ll have to act out that animal. No sound can be made, so everything will be by mimicry.
5. Animal racing. This is a normal race, but between two different animals. You’ll take out a piece of paper with the name of the animal and you’ll run imitating it. Let’s see who wins!

Other animal games for kids

In case your children have the energy and desire to continue playing, you can also use interactive games, which you’ll find on the internet. These games put new technologies at the service of learning about the animal world.

You can also help your children find more information about a specific animal. Wanting to know more is a sign that their curiosity is active and it’s very good for them to enhance that quality.

On the market, there are animal games in different versions: Puzzles, board games, card games, etc. They’re designed specifically for all ages, so you just have to look for the most suitable one.