Free Nocturnal Animal Printables and Montessori-Inspired Nocturnal Animal Activities

Nocturnal animals are fun and mysterious for kids, and so much can be learned from them! So, today we’re starting a noctural animal unit! Along with links to free nocturnal animal printables used to prepare hands-on activities, I have a new Montessori-inspired nocturnal animal pack for our newsletter subscribers’ resource library!

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Montessori Shelves with Nocturnal Animal Themed Activities

You’ll find Montessori-inspired nocturnal animal numbers, letters, and and more (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber) Note: The Montessori-inspired nocturnal animal pack isn’t designed as a complete nocturnal animal unit but as supplemental materials. I design the packs using realistic images that I’ve often looked for when preparing a unit study (such as font cards and phonogram cards featuring the letter and phonogram related to the theme and math cards with realistic images that fit the theme and can be adapted for math activities at a variety of levels.)

You could mix your nocturnal animal themed activities among your shelves according to curriculum area. Or you could have a special nocturnal animal themed area something like the one pictured. My shelves at the beginning of our unit have a mixture of skill levels. Many of the activities can be adapted for a variety of levels. Many of these are designed for early elementary as well as preschoolers. If you’re a homeschooler, just choose the activities that work for your child’s interests and ability levels. If you don’t have room for all the activities you’d like to do, simply rotate them.

Notice the framed art print The Little Owl (1506) by Albrecht Durer. It’s a free download  from Wikiart. 

For our monthly featured art print, I purchased a Li’l DAVINCI art frame that opens in the front for easily changing a free art masterpiece printable or vintage illustration to fit with the month’s theme. The frame can be switched from horizontal to vertical without changing the hanger, which is perfect!

If you’re wondering about the rugs and rug box I use, both the rugs and wooden rug holder are from Montessori Services. I love the Montessori Services rugs and rug holder! I used to use an umbrella stand something like these. I loved that for 1-3 rugs, but I needed something different when I had more grandchildren and some projects that needed more than one rug.

Favorite Shelves, Trays, Baskets, and More for Montessori Homeschoolers

I often get asked about the trays, baskets, etc., that I use, so I published a post with many of the items. You can find lots of helpful resources here. They’re not all essential, so don’t feel you need to have everything. Just choose what’s best for your budget and your unique family’s needs. You’ll find more ideas in the Living Montessori Now Amazon shop

Nocturnal Animal Books for Kids

Even though I have books on shelves, I’m now keeping many of my themed books in a forward-facing display after placing a plant where the themed book basket was before. My seasonal books are now in that book basket. 

For toddlers and preschoolers, about ¾ of the books I use are typically Montessori friendly (focusing on reality without smiling or talking animals or smiling or talking vehicles).

For our nocturnal animal unit, I’m focusing on both non-fiction and fiction books. Some of the books are about animals in general, but I’m emphasizing the nocturnal animals whenever we find one in the books!

Nocturnal Animal Themed Books We’re Using:

Top Shelf of Main Themed Shelf: 

• The Little Book of Night-Time Animal Sounds and all the other books in the series are some of my grandkids’ very favorite books!
• Where Are the Night Animals? (an easy-to-understand book with many nocturnal animal facts)
• “Animals after dark” pages from DK’s My Encyclopedia of Very Important Things (book on easel in the shelf photo)
• Owls: Nocturnal Animals, Owls by Gail Gibbons (book on shelf behind the easel)
• “Night flyers” pages from the DK First Animal Encyclopedia (book on shelf behind the easel)

Top Shelf of Forward -Facing Display:

• The Big Book of Beasts
• The Animal Book: A Visual Encyclopedia of Life on Earth
• National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Animals

2nd Shelf:

• Nature Anatomy: The Curious Parts and Pieces of the Natural World
• DK’s Animal Atlas
• Nocturnal Animals

3rd Shelf:

• After Dark: Poems About Nocturnal Animals
• Nighttime Animals (DK Readers Pre-Level 1)
• Daytime Nighttime, All Through the Year

4th Shelf:

• Night Animals (This book and Night Animals Need Sleep Too are hilarious! I’ve only had the chance so far to read the books to my 4-year-old grandson. He thought they were hilarious, too, and had me read them to him four times in a row!)
• Night Animals Need Sleep Too

Bottom Shelf

• Forest Bright, Forest Night is a fun book because you have to turn it over to read about the animals from the opposite time of day (or night). The diurnal and nocturnal animal sort (shown below) was designed to go with the book
• Moonlight Animals (My grandson also especially likes this book because of the “flashlight” effect. “Move the magic light beam to find the hidden animals.”)
• The Tasty Treat: The Nocturnals Grow & Read Early Reader, Level 1 (There’s a boxed set and whole series at different reading levels of The Nocturnals.)

You can also see lots of nocturnal animal books I’ve used and new books as they’re published here.

The Little Book of Night-Time Animal Sounds with Nocturnal Animal Positional Words Activity

All my grandkids LOVE The Little Book of Night-Time Animal Sounds (and all the other books in the series)! On the shelf, it’s next to Where Are the Night Animals? an easy-to-understand book with many nocturnal animal facts.

Free Printable: Nocturnal Animal Positional Words by Preschool Posse at Teachers Pay Teachers

The printable is a simple but fun way to focus on positional words. I did this activity with my 4-year-old grandson, Caleb, and he enjoyed reading the cards, matching the pictures and then placing the animals on a card with just a tree to show the animal’s position. We only used the raccoon, fox, and owl cards and figures because they’re definitely nocturnal animals. Because I only used one of each animal, Caleb did one positional word at a time. Fpr pre-readers, you could just read the words and have the child demonstrate the position. 

These would also work well with grammar symbols for an older child.

Nocturnal Animal Pages from My Encyclopedia of Very Important Things with Owl Books and Printables in the Background

I’ve often used My Encyclopedia of Very Important Things. It has some great 2-page spreads for introducing a unit.

In front of the open book on the easel is this free printable: Nocturnal Animal 3-Part Cards in English and French from Wise Owl Factory

In the background are some owl books and owl activities. Scroll down to learn more abou those.

Nocturnal Animals Sand Writing Tray and Movable Alphabet Spelling

Free Printables: Loris letter “l” and phonogram “dge” for hedgehog for salt writing tray (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

You’ll see a variety of simple letter writing trays in my previous unit study posts. I often used the wooden tray from the Melissa & Doug Lace and Trace Shapes. You can use whatever tray or container work best for you, though.

The sandpaper letters I use are available in print or cursive.

I typically now use this lovely spelling/alphabet tray from FamilyTreeWW on Etsy. I like it for writing more than one letter or spelling words. 

If you would like help with introducing phonetic sounds, introducing objects with sounds, or beginning phonics in general, check out my DIY Beginning Montessori Phonics with Preschoolers.

I have a post and video on how to introduce words starting with phonograms, even with very young children (although I don’t introduce phonograms to very young children except in a word like “shark” that can’t be explained as starting with /s/).

-ge and -dge Word Endings Sort

Free Printable: -ge and -dge word endings Word Sort and Story by Teaching with a Mountain View at Teachers Pay Teachers

Free Printable: dge” for hedgehog (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

For preschoolers who are working on phonograms, you could just use the “dge” cards for the child to read. For elementary-age kids, this is an activity that can help them understand spelling better and become familiar with the spelling rules for “ge” and “dge.”

Forest Bright, Forest Night Book with Diurnal and Nocturnal Animal Sort

Free Printable: Nocturnal and Diurnal Animal Sorting from Pre-K Printable Fun

Forest Bright, Forest Night is a fun book because you have to turn it over to read about the animals from the opposite time of day (or night). The printable was designed to go with the book, helping kids identify and sort both diurnal and nocturnal animals.

Aardvark Subtraction Activity

Free Printables: Spinner and aardvark math cards (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

This is a fun variation of hands-on subtraction. We did a similar activity for our snake unit. Aardvarks eat ants and termites, so I used some ants we still had from our ant unit.

For this variation, we spin the spinner to find the minuend. The child gets out that number of ants. Then the child spins again but can’t go until the number is smaller than the first. Then the aardvark “eats” that nuumber of ants to find the answer to the problem. Repeat as many times as the child is interested.

Nocturnal, Diurnal, or Crepuscular? Sort

Free Printable: NOCTURNAL, DIURNAL, OR CREPUSCULAR? Poster/Activity Pack by Let’s Get Real at Teachers Pay Teachers

I like this printable because it introduces crepuscular animals (animals that are most active at dawn and dusk). This can be set up as a reusable sorting activity or as an individual cut-and-paste activity.

Nocturnal Animals Emergent Reader

Free Printable: Nocturnal Animals Printable Pack (Nocturnal Animals Emergent Reader) from Simple Living, Creative Learning 

This is a simple early reader. My 4-year-old grandson loves readers like this. I ended up taking out some of the animals that are usually considered crepuscular.

Shelf with Owl Books and Printables

The books are Owls: Nocturnal Animals, Owls by Gail Gibbons, and the Night flyers pages from the DK First Animal Encyclopedia.

The owl printables aren’t free. They’re from our Owl Games, Puzzles, and Editable Tracing Pack, which is available in print or cursive. 

The activities here are owl number puzzles and skip counting number puzzles with Montessori bead bars and owl concentration. They’re just two of the activities in the pack, which focuses on language skills, math skills, and types of owls.

Free Nocturnal Animal Printables

Montessori-Inspired Nocturnal Animal Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber).

More Nocturnal Animal Resources

Free Woodland Animals and Montessori-Inspired Woodland Printables (Not all woodland animals are nocturnal, but this includes some that are, such as the fox and hedgehog.)

Montessori-Inspired Owl Unit with Free Printables and Activities

Free Raccoon Printables and Montessori-Inspired Raccoon Activities

Free Bat Printables and Montessori-Inspired Bat Activities

HELPFUL ANIMAL CLASSIFICATION POSTS

• Living and Non-Living
• Plant and Animal Sorting
• Montessori Animal Classification
• Free Zoo Printables and Montessori-Inspired Zoo Activities
• Montessori-Inspired Animal Units

If you’d like ideas for calendar-based themes throughout September and October, see my September Themed Activities for Kids and October Themed Activities for Kids.

Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!

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