Learn about the African habitat with these safari books for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students. There are nonfiction and fiction titles for you to use in your classroom. Students will love learning about the animals that live on the Savanna.
Grab the Safari Centers (coming soon), the Little Learners Science All About Habitats pack, and the STEM I Can Build Landforms and Habitats pack to complete your theme.
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Fiction Safari Books
Introduce numbers and counting with this fun book about the animals riding a train to the zoo. Your students will love the bright colors and details on the animals from Eric Carle.
Introduce students to 26 different animals that live in Africa. Your students are sure to learn something new with this engaging alphabet book.
Or can they? Gerald, the giraffe, loves to dance, but all of the animals make fun of him. A great safari book that includes a sweet lesson on how to be kind and helpful.
Read about how the animals prepare for nighttime in this book, which features lots of synonyms. Will everyone calm down or will there be some wild fun?
Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion
A safari twist on the classic Red Riding Hood story. The lion is very hungry, will he be able to trick Little Red into his belly?
Count and explore the baby animals that live in the grasslands of Africa. A wonderful book to add to your counting, habitats, or safari theme!
Share about the rain cycle in the African safari. Students will be interested to learn that the rain doesn’t come very often but brings new life to the dry grasslands.
A feisty lion cub roars his way across the grasslands, trying to find someone to play with him. Practice counting skills while enjoying this cute story.
A little girl loves going on safari with her trusty orange jeep, but will the nighttime noises be too scary for her to fall asleep? A cute story about being brave.
Porty is a hippopotamus, but he isn’t sure he would like to be one. Can he change into something else?
A new kind of Princess and the Pea that has a prince looking for a princess. But how can he tell that makes a good princess?
Jane Cabrera does a wonderful job at sharing this classic song with a safari twist and vibrant illustrations that are sure to captivate your students.
Count your way through Tanzania with a group of friends and learn how to count in Swahili while seeing many animals in the grasslands.
Put on your safari hat, and let’s go on a lion hunt. A great book to read to encourage imagination and creative thinking in the classroom.
A musical book filled with tons of animals, little pictures to find, and learn about music. This is such a fun book that your students will want to read it again and again.
Simple instructions to get your students moving and stretching like animals in the wild. This book is so fun for indoor recess or those cold months when you can’t go outside. The illustrations are so fun and whimsical, too.
Nonfiction Safari Books
Amazing photography in this book shows children some of the animals and plants that can be found on the savanna. It is full of vocabulary and lots of information to share with your students.
Learn about Africa and what it holds. This book tells about the cities, the mountains, the languages, and more.
See a photo and get a bit of information about an animal that starts with each letter of the alphabet. I like the photos that this book has for sharing knowledge with my students.
Learn about what lives in the grasslands, from plants to animals in this nonfiction reader that is made for children.
A pre-reader for young children about the safari. Meet the animals that live there and what they may do in a day.
Pebble Book Series: African Animals
Pebble books make wonderful nonfiction texts for little learners. They have simple text that teaches students with great photographs, too. Pebble has created books on so many topics, and they are one of my all-time favorites.
These books are great to add to your class library for a nonfiction series about safari animals. The books feature lots of facts about each kind of animal with some great photos to engage students.
National Geographic Kids: African Animals
National Geographic Kids has some great nonfiction books with amazing real-life images and facts for your learners. They have so many books that you are sure to find one to fit your needs!
You will have so much fun learning about the safari with your students. Students adore and are so intrigued by the animals since chances are you don’t live by any of these animals. Take this even further by completing a habitat theme and study other biomes in the world.
Love these safari books? Pin this image.
For more of my favorite books, check out my themed Book List Blog Series that features themed book lists to accompany your lessons and activities! These are sure to keep your library shelves full! If there is a book list for a theme you need, just let us know so we can create it for you!
hey, i’m jackie!
I’m Jackie, your go-to girl for early childhood inspiration and research-based curriculum.
