Welcome to the forest! Here you’ll find loads of ideas for a forest preschool theme, including book ideas, art and sensory exploration, and math and science fun. You’ll find the whole bundle of ideas at the end of this post including our free forest preschool lesson plans.
Free Forest Activities for Preschoolers Including Free Forest Lesson Plans
These fun forest and woodland animal-themed preschool lesson plans are great for use any time of the year and make for a super engaging theme!
When my son was little, we went on a trip to the mountains, and at one stop, we saw a family of deer, munching on grass at the bottom of the valley. The most picturesque scene with at least six deer and a couple of adorable fawns… sparked my son’s curiosity about other animals in the forest that he had never seen before.
The rest of our trip was spent looking for more woodland animals (and more deer, of course) and embarking on a scavenger hunt of sorts looking for a fox, a rabbit, and a bear (his idea, certainly not mine) in our nature travels.
We hope that these free forest preschool lesson plans bring your preschoolers into the depths of the forest and learn more about the beauty of the natural world around us!
FAQ About a Forest Preschool Theme
You may have a few questions about teaching this preschool theme! Check out these frequently asked questions for how to teach your preschoolers about teaching a forest theme in preschool.
Getting kids involved in nature is a big part of learning to appreciate and respect plants and animals. If heading out into nature is not possible in preschool, bring nature inside! Use real images and photos, and make art projects with things you find in nature such as leaves, flowers, twigs, or pebbles. Learn about animals and insects and emphasize the important role of each living thing in nature.
It’s important for preschoolers to learn that trees are essential because they produce oxygen for all living things, provide shade and homes to many animals, and are a valuable part of our Earth. Learning about different habitats and landforms is a great way to learn about Earth’s amazing landscape, even in preschool!
This theme ties in perfectly with Earth Day in the spring, learning about different habitats and the animals that call them home, such as zoo animals or nocturnal animals. A fairy tale theme even fits in since many fairy tales are set in the forest!
Important Info about these Forest-Themed Lesson Plans
These lesson plans for preschoolers are just one theme in a set of over 50 that will become a part of my free Learn At Home Preschool Activity Plans.
The Learn at Home Preschool Activity Plans are a set of free activity plans you can use to teach your preschooler at home.
Each set of lesson plans is centered around a weekly theme and includes a minimum of 16 activities that can be done throughout the week. They are designed to be done at home with parents, but many preschool teachers are using these lesson plans, too!
Just glance over the lessons each day, gather the very few materials needed, and you’re ready to go!
All the preschool learning activities are quick and easy to set up, requiring very little (if any at all) prep and only require the most basic of household materials. This makes them especially easy for parents to implement…and this makes preschool teachers happy, too!
These activities also work wonderfully in the classroom, and if you’re a preschool teacher who is remotely teaching you can send these lesson plans to your student’s parents.
Engaging Preschool Activities for a Forest Theme
Jump into these fun animal and forest learning activities for preschoolers! Easy to prep and use, they are a great place to start in planning your forest theme.
Literacy Activities for a Forest Preschool Theme
Forest Animal Song and Rhyme Pack – This fun forest animal-themed song and literacy pack is a great way to get your kids moving and practicing different animal sounds and actions. Plus, preschoolers love helping to point to the words and find the matching animal card for the song! The animal cards can be used to sort and create new animal sounds and movements too!
Forest Animals Emergent Reader with Color Words – Grab this printable emergent reader with forest animals and repeating predictive text. Invite your preschooler to color in the animals to match the color words and color in the color word. Read each page out loud and invite your preschooler to point to each word and re-read it with you. Invite your preschooler to add their own additional page at the end by drawing a new forest animal and adding the same predictive text with you at the bottom.
Don’t Forget the Picture Books!
One of the best ways to teach preschoolers about any theme is by hand-selecting the highest-quality picture books! This is a book list of our best-loved picture books for a forest theme.
Math and Science Activities for a Forest Theme in Preschool
Forest Animal Pattern Blocks – Grab these free printable forest animal pattern blocks and practice shape recognition, counting, and spatial awareness!
Forest Animal Graphing Activity – This forest animal graphing activity is a fun way to practice counting and graphing while learning about different forest animals!
Popsicle Stick Bird Feeder – Make a bird feeder for your own backyard with popsicle sticks, glue, and bird seed. Invite your preschooler to color the popsicle sticks, glue them together, and hang them outside with string! Add some birdseed and you will have friendly forest animals visiting all season long!
Playful Preschool Learning Activities for a Forest Theme
Photo Scavenger Hunt – This fun hands-on activity encourages kids to search through nature and capture fun memories on their cameras. Search for woodland animals, animal tracks, plus bring magnifying glasses for careful inspection!
Scavenger Hunt Imprints – While on your scavenger hunt look for different items (flowers, sticks, pebbles, stones, leaves, etc.) to press into play dough and try to make an impression.
Stack Cups – Kids love to stack things and knock them down. Using a sleeve of plastic cups, invite your preschooler to see how tall a tower you can make by stacking them. If you don’t have cups you can use plastic containers, rolls of paper towels, books, or anything else you can think of from around the house.
Social-Emotional Activities for a Forest Preschool Theme
Learning to Face Your Fears Like Little Owl – Go to YouTube and listen to the story, Brave Little Owl by Penny Little. Little Owl wants to learn to fly and is very distraught that her flying attempts aren’t working out and she is becoming more and more scared of flying. Her friends remind her that lots of things might seem scary at first but after a little practice and some positive thinking, it turns out to be not so scary after all. Invite your preschooler to draw a picture of what bravery might look like for them. Perhaps sitting with a new friend or going down the big slide!
Forest Friends Learn About Friendship – Go to YouTube and listen to the story, Forest Friends by Vooks Narrated Storybooks. In this set of video stories, the forest friends learn about their positive superpowers and share kindness with others. Invite your preschooler to share their superpower… are they a super problem solver? Great friend? Big helper? Remind them that they have many amazing and wonderful characteristics to share with others!
Just Plain Fun Forest Activities for Preschoolers
Painting Forest Animals/Puppets – Grab some watercolor paints and start painting forest animals! Cut out the eyes and turn them into forest animal puppets! Perfect for dramatic play and circle time. Add in some forest stuffed animals for even more puppet fun!
Forest Tree Snack for Kids – Playing with food can be fun and tasty! Create a tree snack using grapes and pretzels of various sizes!
Woodland Paper Plate Animals – This cute and fun forest animal paper plate craft comes with everything you need to cut and glue to make your own paper plate animal! This craft helps develop scissor skills and perseverance and is a craft that can be turned into a process art project over a few days!
Get Online Activities for a Forest Theme
Online Story – Go to YouTube and listen to the story, We Walk Through the Forest by Lisa Ferland. Then, ask your preschooler: Can you remember some of the animals that she saw in the forest? What sounds did the animals make? What animals might we see where we live?
Walking in the Forest Song and Video – This preschool-friendly song is a fun and catchy way to engage in gross motor movement and pretend to be different forest animals!
Forest Animals Science Songs – This catchy science forest animal song shares facts and information about lots of forest animals
Make Your Forest Theme Even Better!
Sometimes (not always), what turns a great preschool theme into an exceptional one is having some extra special materials specific to that theme. These are some of the forest toys and activity kits I like to use with my preschoolers.
Get Your Free Forest Lesson Plans Here
Want to include these forest activities in your lesson plans? Ready to grab your free printable lesson plans with all these forest theme activities for preschoolers?!
No problem. I’ve made a printable for you. Just fill out the form below and it will be sent to your inbox.
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I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
