Printable Over in the Forest Activities for Preschoolers

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If you have an animal-lover like I do, then you probably study animals of all types in your homeschool science lessons.

I know that preschool and early elementary teachers like to study animals with their students, as well. There are so many related activities to do with animal themes.

If you’re teaching about forests and/or woodlands, you’ll love the Over in the Forest activities and printables featured below.

Over in the Forest by Marianne Berkes is a fun book for the preschool and early elementary crowd.

Not only are kids introduced to various animals that live in the forest, but there are so many ways to bring in some fun learning opportunities.

Little ones will learn about the names of different animal babies. They will practice counting to ten. And, they’ll learn how various animals move throughout the forest.

Over in the Forest Activities

Hands-On Activities

After reading Over in the Forest with your little ones and completing some of the activity pages in the printable below, choose one or more of the activities below to bring the story to life.

Teach your little ones how to tell how old a tree is.
Have your students collect branches on your next nature walk. Then, let them create unique textured paintings with nature’s paintbrushes.
Make a fancy stick crown!
Make some Waldorf-inspired nature blocks from old tree limbs.
Go on a walk (alone) and gather fallen leaves. Now, give those leaves to your child and see if they can find the tree that matches the leaves.
Kids will enjoy working together to create forest fairy tales.
Gather leaves, twigs, nuts, and cones. Display things that come from trees on your classroom nature table.
Create a story tree with story baskets. These baskets are perfect for encouraging storytelling, language skills, sequencing, and more.

Snacks and Treats

These snacks and treats are super fun and go perfectly with a forest/woodland theme.

Apple turtles
Cute and easy snail lunch
Cute lunch idea: Beaver

More Forest-Themed Books

You can find these books at your local library or bookstore. If not, you can order them on Amazon by clicking the links provided.

Hiding in the Woods – Little Deer and his helpful mouse friend encounter chipmunks, insects, spiders, rabbits, lizards, snakes, and birds on this nature trail adventure. Each page is filled with beautifully detailed illustrations, and includes a variety of touch-and-feel textures and a lift-the-flap, pop-up surprise.

Forest – Discover the hidden secrets of some of the world’s most intriguing forests and the animals that inhabit them. Explore incredible pop-up panoramas, and listen to the call of the cuckoo, the bellow of a majestic moose and the snarl of a cougar!

A Walk in the Woods – This nature coloring book takes you on a beautiful tour of the four seasons, pointing out with great artistic and verbal skills the many mysteries of nature — from sightings of spring flowers to amazing life beneath pond ice.