• Kids can learn about animal habitats through crafts.geschnitzter elefant image by Nachtfalke from Fotolia.com
  
  Animal crafts for children can vary by age or grade. By dividing the crafts by animal categories, such as jungle, forest, ocean and farm animals, the children can also learn about the different environments that the animals live in. Dogs, cats, turtles, fish and other household pets can be used as well. The crafts are often made with construction paper, crayons and paints.
  
  

Jungle Animal Crafts

• To make a lion’s face, start with beige construction paper for the face and brown for the mane, eyes, inner ear, nose, and mouth. Make a copy of a lion’s outline from a coloring book. For preschool and kindergarten children, use a paper plate as the base. For older children, cut out a large oval shape for the mane and a smaller oval shape for the face. The children can draw the face with a marker as you teach them about the king of the jungle and the jungle environment. As an alternative, you can glue chenille onto the brown paper as the mane.
  
  

Forest Animal Crafts

• A great way to teach children about the environment is to include forest animals. Make copies of bear clip art and enlarge on your copier. Have the children color in the bear and glue black or brown faux fur to it. As part of the lesson, teach the children about the bear’s hibernation process.You can also include the different trees and plant life in the forest.
  
  As an alternative, copy and enlarge a forest landscape photo. Assign a different animal or insect found in the forest to each child. Ask the children to color and cut out the animal and apply strips of hook-and-loop fasteners to the cut-outs. As you teach about the different animals, have the children attach their animal onto the landscape until the forest is complete.
  
  

Farm Animal Crafts

• Barnyard farm animals—pigs, chickens, cows, and sheep—are often created as hand puppets using paper lunch bags for the body of the animal. Different colored construction paper is cut out and glued onto the bag to create the animal.
  
  For example, for a cow puppet, make sure the lunch bag is flat with the bottom flap folded down. The flap will be the head of the cow. Draw a template for the children of the ears, mouth, eyes, nose, and tail, as well as funny arms and legs and make copies. Have the children color and cut out the different parts and glue them onto their cow puppet base. As an alternative, the children can color black spots onto the cow body as well.