Life is a zoo.

Meet the zoo, a rowdy bunch of kind-hearted, adventurous critters, who love to travel. Life is a zoo with these fellas around.

They’ve been spending their summer visiting amazing locations all over the world. So far they’ve had cake in Paris, tea in London, and roamed the streets of Edinburgh.

Among the group are three monkeys who are fond of pranks and love to aid in public service. These mischievous munchkins navigated the wild traffic of Paris, helped steer a vessel at sea and assisted the queen’s guard at Whitehallbanqueting room. Miss Ellie is a kind-hearted elephant who’s always looking for a good cup of tea. You’ll seldom find this young lady without her favorite red teapot. Guss (Gustav), the friendly lion, enjoys books and loves cookies. Though the lion’s a mighty beast, he’s kind and mild tempered. You’ll often find him with his friend Miss Ellie trying out now tea shops. Tops the young giraffe, though a little timid, is apt to make friends and always looking for something sweet to eat, he is especially fond of cake. 

Join the adventure!

Our animal friends will soon be leaving for school, but before they go, they would like to invite you for their last adventure of summer.

So jump right into the fun. Print off your free life is a zoo coloring page and cut out your paper animals today. To make the most of these resources I recommend that children and parents participate together; make memories that will last forever. Have fun and share your adventures. I can’t wait to see all the places these little animals are going to go.

Don’t forget, you must use the hashtag #lifeisazoo and tag Storytimeillustrating for your entry to count. Subscribe to my email list to get your free cutouts and coloring page, use the pop-up form on this blog post or on my home page. You will earn one entry for each unique photo submitted with the correct hashtag so let without any more delay…

Advice, tips, and tidbits.

I’ve had a blast working with these paper animals. Below I’ve shared some tips on how you can get the most enjoyment from these little cutouts and the free coloring page.

First of all, I urge parents and children to work on these figures together. Spending time with your children will help them have fun, imagine with confidence, and create memories that’ll last a lifetime.

Secondly, I recommend printing the paper animals on card-stock or 98lb mixed media paper. A heavier paper will allow the figures to be rigid and stand up nicely. If preferred the animals can be printed on regular 20lb printer paper; however, they will be more flexible and may fall. If you use regular printer paper, you may want to tape the figures to pencils or pop-sickle sticks similar to Marotte puppets. When cutting out the zoo animals don’t worry if you leave some of the white space, just make sure not to snip the characters accidentally. I found it worked best to cut from the outside in towards the figures.

Finally, when printing the coloring page feel free to explore with the type of paper you use. I copy my coloring pages on 98lb mixed media paper that holds up to my light watercolor painting. It’s perfectly ok to print on standard 20lb printer paper; however, if you print on regular paper, I recommend that you only draw on the coloring page using dry mediums such as color pencils, crayons, or chalks.

Most of all I encourage you to explore and use your imagination. Make memories, and have fun.

Until next time,

Elisha T. Wood