Maybe it's a bit expensive, but you could bring in a menagerie of stuffed animals for them to play with. That would get them involved.
Don't forget to teach them about meerkats, that's my favourite animal. ...and red pandas, too, they're really cool.
http://images.google.com.my/images?q...O-8859-1&hl=en http://images.google.com.my/images?s...59-1&q=meerkat