Coloring Activities

• Preschoolers love to color and get creative. While they’re enjoying themselves with the crayons ,coloring in pictures of nocturnal animals is a time to impart knowledge as well. Talk about different features nocturnal animals have. They often have dark fur or feathers, like black or brown. Ask your students why they think animals that come out are night are usually dark and how it might help them. Explain that coloration helps them blend in with their surroundings. When your students are coloring a picture of an owl, discuss the owl’s eyes and how they help the owl see at night. Apply the same approach to how a bat’s ears help it fly and find bugs to eat.
  
  

Making Bats

• When we think of nocturnal animals, bats often spring to mind. Their simplified shape lends itself to a crafts project for preschoolers. Have students cut out bat wings from black or brown construction paper and affix them to a black pom-pom with glue. Add some googly eyes and a string and you'll have a fuzzy little bat ready for hanging. Hang the bats around an area of the classroom and have students sit under their bats with the lights dimmed while you talk about how bats sleep together in a cave during the day and come out at night. Your own little bat cave will serve as a background to read about nocturnal animals and discuss their features.
  
  

Paper Bag Owls

• Having your students create a owl puppet is another way to introduce the interesting adaptations of nocturnal animals. Use lunch-sized paper bags and have students cut out construction paper eyes and beaks. For a more owlish look, students can add feathers, wings or horns. As your students are making their puppets, tell them different facts about owls. Have students sit in a circle with their finished puppets and have the “owls” tell their classmates what they might see or hear flying around at night.
  
  

Nocturnal Animal Poems and Illustrations

• Read a selection of poems about different nocturnal animals. Have your students listen carefully and choose an animal from the poems to illustrate. Ask them to think about what their animal may be doing at night, what the animal might see or hear and how different things would look for them.