23 Simple Nocturnal Animal Activities for Preschoolers

Children love learning about animals that come out at night! This theme helps them understand how different creatures live, move and behave at night.

Here are some simple ideas for exploring nighttime creatures at home or school through creative art, stories, pretend play, songs, sensory activities and simple science.

Art and Crafts

Build fine motor skills and creativity with the following ideas:

1. Paper Plate Owls

There are many ways to make cute paper plate owls. Start by painting two plates brown, then providing cutouts for eyes, legs, nose and ears. Cut the second paper plate in half and use the halves as wings on either side.

2. Night Sky Collage

Make a beautiful collage of the night sky by using black paper and pasting moon shapes and silver stars. Add some dark tree silhouettes.

3. Handprint Bats

Paint children’s hands with black paint and press them onto white paper with thumbs overlapping — the palms form the bat’s body and the fingers become the wings. Once the paint is dry, glue on googly eyes (or white paper eyes) and draw or stick on a little mouth with fangs. This is a fun way to explore symmetry.

4. Spiky Hedgehogs

For some fine motor practice, have children shape a hedgehog body from playdough or clay, making one end rounded and the other slightly pointed for the face.

Let them add prickles using short twigs, pieces of dry spaghetti or, with close supervision, toothpicks.

Finish by adding googly eyes, small beads or playdough for the eyes and nose.

5. Moth Wing Pattern Art

Show children pictures of real moths and discuss how their wings feature beautiful, symmetrical patterns and colours that can help some moths blend in with their surroundings.

Fold a sheet of paper in half, then open it and have children paint shapes and colours on one side only. While the paint is still wet, fold the paper again and press gently — when they open it, they’ll see a matching pattern on both sides, just like moth wings!

Once dry, cut out the wing shape and add a small paper body in the middle.

Music and Movement

Here are some ideas for adding music and movement to your theme:

6. Owl Song

Play this fun song and have children follow the owl actions in the song.

The actions are:

• Flap your wings and fly around
• Open your eyes big and wide
• Land on the ground and hop along
• Turn your head and say “hoot! hoot!”

7. Move Like a Moth

Play some calm, classical music and move like moths fluttering around. Children can use scarves and flap them like moth wings.

8. Nighttime Firefly and Shadow Dancing

Turn down the lights and do a magical firefly dance using glow sticks, ribbons or small torches. Let the children twirl, flutter, and move around the room like glowing fireflies in the night sky.

Then switch to shadow dancing by shining a light or torch on a blank wall and encouraging children to move, stretch, and wave their arms to watch their shadows grow and change.

9. Five Little Bats

Practise counting backwards with this song, based on the original Five Little Ducks:

10. There’s a Wide Eyed Owl

Teach your kids this simple action rhyme and watch the actions in the video below:

There's a wide-eyed owl
With a pointed nose,
Two pointed ears, and claws for toes.
He sits in a tree, and he looks at you,
He flaps his wings, and says 'Whoo Whoo Whoo'.

Literacy and Stories

Here are some literacy ideas and lovely stories about nocturnal animals to read to your children (or watch the read-alouds with them below).

11. Nocturnal Animals Word Wall

Print and display this ready-made Nocturnal Word Wall featuring words like bat, owl, moon, night, stars, and fox. Cut out and laminate the cards if you wish, then arrange them on a wall or board at children’s eye level. Encourage children to read, match, and use the words during play and discussions.

12. Nocturnal and Diurnal Animal Sort

Talk about the difference between nocturnal animals, which are mainly active at night, and diurnal animals, which are mainly active during the day.

Use the printable pictures to sort the animals into two groups.

You can also explain that animal behaviour is not always completely black and white. Some animals are crepuscular, which means they are most active around dawn and dusk, and activity patterns can also vary between species.

For preschoolers, the main aim is simply to introduce the idea that some animals are usually active during the day and others at night.

13. The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark

Many children can relate to feeling afraid of the dark. In this story by Jill Tomlinson, Plop the baby barn owl discovers that the dark isn’t so scary after all — with a little help from his friends, he learns that nighttime can be wonderful too.

14. Stellaluna

Stellaluna by Janell Cannon is a heartwarming story about a bat who is raised by a bird after she is separated from her mother. Stellaluna knows that she is different to her bird siblings, but realises that being different is okay.

15. Night Animals

Night Animals by Gianna Marino is a funny story about a group of animals who are afraid of creatures in the night until they realise that they are night animals too.

This is a fun, animated version with lots of cool animal sounds. It's also a good story to introduce the theme of nocturnal animals.

16. Odd One Out Game

Play a game of Nocturnal Odd One Out by naming four animals and asking children to identify which one is different. Encourage them to explain their answer.

Keep the examples fairly simple, using animals that are generally associated with being active either during the day or at night.

• Bat – Owl – Raccoon – Butterfly
  (Butterfly is the odd one out — butterflies are active during the day.)
• Hedgehog – Badger – Moth – Bee
  (Bee is the odd one out — bees are active during the day.)
• Owl – Bat – Moth – Squirrel
  (Squirrel is the odd one out — squirrels are mainly active during the day.)
• Raccoon – Hedgehog – Owl – Robin
  (Robin is the odd one out — robins are active during the day.)
• Butterfly – Bee – Squirrel – Bat
  (Bat is the odd one out — bats are active at night.)

Science, Sensory and Nature Play

Explore nocturnal animals through hands-on sensory play, simple science and natural materials.

17. Forest Sensory Bin

Set up a forest sensory bin with natural materials, such as twigs, leaves, and pinecones, along with small woodland toys and animals.

Here are more ideas for setting up sensory stations.

18. Build an Owl Roost

Provide twigs, leaves, bark and other natural materials and invite children to create a safe resting place for a toy owl.

Explain that many owls do not build nests from scratch. Instead, they may use tree hollows, ledges or old nests made by other birds. This activity encourages children to think about the kinds of sheltered places owls need to rest and raise their young.

19. Night Sky Sensory Bottle

Create the effect of a night sky by adding water to a clear plastic bottle and making it a dark colour with blue or black food colouring. Add glitter, sequins, and tiny star shapes, then seal the lid tightly.

When children shake the bottle, they can watch the “stars” swirl and sparkle like the night sky.

Discuss how the food colouring dissolves in the water, but the glitter and other materials settle or float in the water rather than dissolving.

Dramatic Play and Social-Emotional Learning

This theme lends itself well to pretend play! Here are a few ideas:

20. Pretend Forest Campout

Set up a pretend campsite with torches, sleeping bags or blankets, and soft toy animals. Dim the room, then tell stories about the night and listen to recordings of animal sounds to try to identify the animals.

21. Bat Cave Den

Create a dark cave with blankets and chairs or tables and let children enjoy some quiet time, pretending to be bats living in the cave.

22. Feelings Discussion

Talk about feeling scared of the dark and being brave. This is a good discussion to have before reading the story The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark, above.

23. Animal Rescue Centre

Set up a vet or animal rescue station and invite children to pretend to be vets, caring for nocturnal animals that have been hurt or are unwell.

Here are more role-play ideas for kids.

I hope these activities give you plenty of ideas for exploring nocturnal animals with your preschoolers. Here is a full list of Preschool Themes and Activities for year-round ideas.

For more seasonal fun, check out these Fall Theme Ideas or Pumpkin Theme Activities.