Preschool Zebra Craft adn Book Plus Activities With Zeb the Zebra

Preschool Zebra Craft adn Book Plus Activities With Zeb the Zebra
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Zeb the Zebra Preschool Crafts

Zebras, with their black and white stripes, are fascinating creatures found on the African continent. Their interesting appearance

makes them a favorite with children and adults alike. You can start by reading Lots and Lots of Zebra Stripes by Steven Swinburne. Preschoolers can then learn about the zebra and have fun with crafts by making a match-box zebra with cut straws.

Materials

  • Empty matchbox
  • straws cut to the size of the matchbox
  • Colors - gouache or water-colors
  • Brush
  • Water bowl
  • Glue

Directions

  1. Take the empty match-box and color it white with white gouache. Paint black stripes over the white. Show the preschoolers photographs of zebras to get an idea of what the zebra stripes look like.
  2. Take three straws and glue them together lengthwise. Do this five times, so you have five bundles of glued together straws.
  3. Take three more straws, cut them in half and glue the pieces together to form a smaller bundle.
  4. Let the glue dry and then paint the bundles white and paint on black stripes.
  5. Now take the matchbox, hold it horizontal on the long side and glue on the four straw bundles - two in front and two at the back to form the zebra’s four legs.
  6. Glue the fifth bundle to one upper edge, facing upward to form the zebra’s neck.
  7. Once the neck is properly in place and the glue had dried, glue the smaller bundle to the neck to form the zebra’s head. You can also glue two small pieces of straw upright to the head to form two ears.
  8. Glue a single straw on the opposite edge, facing downward to form the zebra’s tail.
  9. Now let the whole dry and stand up the zebra.
  10. Check if the coloring is correct, or high-light here and there as needed.

Zeb The Zebra is ready to gallop!

Preschool Zebra Crafts Activity

After your class has completed their preschool zebra craft you can spend some time talking about zebras in general. Questions to discuss, and possible answers are:

  • Why are zebras black and white? - To meld better with the surroundings. For camouflage. Camouflage is like hiding in plain sight.
  • Where are zebras found? - On the African continent, in a variety of habitats like grasslands, coastal lands, forests, hills and mountains.
  • Have the preschoolers seen a real zebra? If so, where? - Zoo or in a safari park? What did they think of the zebra? What was the zebra doing?
  • What do zebras eat? - Zebras are vegetarians and eat grass, leaves, plants and bark.
  • How do zebras talk with each other? - Zebras live in herds and they talk with other zebras by brays, whinnies and high pitch barks.
  • Zebras have relatives. Who are they? - Horses and Asses.
  • Do you know there are different types of zebras? - There are Grey’s Zebras, Mountain Zebras and Plains Zebras.

What else to do…

Look at photographs and videos of zebras in the wild. Here are some YouTube links -* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9HCk1r4OWg (almost 4 minutes)* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJGlNIHfUa8 (only 26 seconds)* Draw a zebra and color it.

  • Tell the Namibian bushmen folk tale about the zebra.