It's A Zoo in Here!

I plan my lessons for the sake of the kids and their interests but there are certainly some I enjoy much more than others. Take the Zoo for example. While I am pained for the treatment of animals who must live in enclosures, Zoo's do save and protect animals. Seeing an animal up close and in person is too amazing an opportunity to miss out on either. I enjoy watching them as much as Seth does. In fact sometimes I wish he would slow down so I could watch longer!

Life with three kids most days of the week is a Zoo in and of itself. Our inability to get out and about only makes it more so. The Zoo topic is one I get great mileage out of. We have a large bucket of Schleich animals that we have collected and we use them and our blocks, legos, whatever we can find to build ginormous zoos for all the animals. We also draw zoos on paper and use animal stickers to fill in the spaces. We also checked out a Fischer Price Zoo and zoo puzzles from the ECFE toy library. Seth and I will go to both the Como Zoo and the MN Zoo (thanks to a library pass) during this lesson series too. Of course it wouldn't be learning without reading a million different books too so I created a list of them for you.

Animal Strike at the Zoo: It’s True!, Karma Wilson
Annie and the Wild Animals, Jan Brett
Apes and Monkeys, Michael and Jane Pelusey
Charlie at the Zoo, Marcus Pfister
Elephants, Michael and Jane Pelusey
Giraffes and Zebras, Michael and Jane Pelusey
Good Night Gorilla, Peggy Rathmann
If Anything Ever Goes Wrong at the Zoo, Mary Jean Hendrick
Last Night at the Zoo, Michael Garland
Mealtime for Zoo Animals, Caroline Arnold
Noisytime for Zoo Animals, Caroline Arnold
Out and About at the Zoo, Kathleen W. Deady
Playtime for Zoo Animals, Caroline Arnold
Pssst!, Adam Rex
Rhinoceroses and Hippopotamuses, Michael and Jane Pelusey
The Umbrella, Jan Brett
The Tiger Has a Tootheache: Helping Animals at the Zoo, Patricia Lauber
Twas the Day Before Zoo Day, Catherine Ipcizade
Welcome to the Zoo, Alison Jay
Wild About Books, Judy Sierra
Z is for Zookeeper: A Zoo Alphabet, Marie and Roland Smith
Zany Zoo, William Wise (poems)
Zoo Animals 123, Rebecca Fjelland Davis
Zoo Do’s and Don’ts, Todd Parr
Zoo-Looking, Mem Fox
Zookeeper Sue, Chris Demarest

Get out of your zoo and into a different one as soon as you can!