Zombies Don’t Eat Veggies Math and Crafts

It’s finally October and only a few weeks away until one of our most favorite holidays. We have been getting into the spirit lately with activities inspired by one of our favorite books, Zombies Don’t Eat Veggies, written and illustrated by the creative husband and wife team of Megan and Jorge Lacera. It is a delightful story about a zombie named Mo, who to his parents’ horror… prefers vegetables to traditional zombie cuisine. My kids absolutely love this sweet tale of a family learning to accept their differences. They also adore the fun illustrations, appreciating the Laceras’ depiction of the not-so-scary side of zombies.

We made zombies clothespin puppets and vegetables to feed the zombies. Mo looks happy whereas his parents look absolutely horrified. I also made some clip cards, number mats, a fun playdough mat, as well as some themed color by number and math worksheets. The authors, Megan and Jorge Lacera, have graciously allowed me to share these activities I made, using their characters, with you. These are all available for free download below.

The Zombies Clothespin Puppets Template is best printed out onto cardstock, given to your child to color, then cut in half at the mouth to glue onto the two sides of a clothespin. If you don’t have clothespins, the characters can be cut out and glued onto popsicle sticks, toilet paper rolls, or even pencils. Puppets are a wonderful way for children to act out and retell stories, exercising their memory and imagination.

The Vegetable Clip Cards are best printed out back to back, laminated for durability and repeat use, and then cut into four. My kids enjoyed using their clothespin puppets to eat the right numbers. If you don’t have a clothespin to clip, your kids can use dry erase markers to circle the correct number, or place small counters (beans, cheerios, or pumpkin seeds for example) on the correct number.

The Zombies Counting Cards are best laminated then cut into four. You can have your child either draw the correct number of hairs on Mo’s head or learn to write tally marks on his face (as they look like zombie stitches). You can also print multiple copies and use them in a matching game or to help your child practice addition, subtraction, and multiplication problems.

The Zombies Playdough Mat is best printed out and laminated and is just plain fun for open-ended play. Help your child create, in the words of the Laceras, “delectable and tantalizing” vegetable toppings for Mo’s pizza. You can encourage counting practice by ordering only a certain number of toppings or practice phonics by only using toppings that start with a certain letter. You can also use this as a sticker scene. Your child doesn’t have to be limited to vegetables and can add number stickers to make a number pizza, or even letters to make an alphabet pizza.

There are six pages of Zombies Color By Number that can be used for kids to help practice number recognition, simple addition, subtraction, as well as multiplication in a fun, non-traditional, and not-so-scary way.

There are six Zombies Math Worksheets. The first three are suitable for grades K-1, while the word problems are geared more towards grades 2-3. The last worksheet is a blank template that you can use to create your own problems for your child based on what their current math needs are. Your child can also be encouraged and challenged to create their own unique problems to solve.

If your child enjoyed these activities, they may also like:

Zombies Don’t Eat Veggies! can be purchased from Studio Lacera or Lee and Low Books.

There is a free theme song you can listen to here. My kids also really enjoyed this reading by Jaime Camil on Storyline Online.

I hope you enjoy these Zombies inspired learning activities! Special thanks to Megan and Jorge Lacera for writing such a wonderful book and for allowing me to run with their characters in creating some learning fun to share.