Put Me in the Zoo
To start off Zoo Week, we read Robert Lopshire's Put Me in the Zoo. It's a great book for beginning readers, but worked well for my toddler too because it was simple and repetitive. The fun colors also made it very interesting for him. Inspired by the book and by Suzy Homeschooler, we created a very simple - yet HIGHLY entertaining "Put me n the Zoo" Sensory Bin. The original bin at the link above included more components, but we created ours with just white rice and multi-colored (and multi-sized) pom-poms.
T enjoyed scooping and dumping the rice (just as he did when I made rainbow rice to play with), but he also started to get the hang of sorting through the rice and collecting the pom-poms in a container. It was neat to see him uncover this "task." This was great fine motor work, especially the small pom-poms. It was also a great opportunity to count and talk about colors.
Zoo Animal Sounds
We have many zoo themed books and toys. So a lot of our activities this week consisted of playing with those toys and reading those books, but incorporating some more intentional efforts to name the animals and make their sounds. By the end of the week T had picked up on a few new animal names and several new animal sounds (which was really fun for him). Our play included two zoo animal puzzles, a zoo themed activity cube, and a book that makes animal sounds.
Zebra Bouncy-Ball Painting
Since racquetball painting was such a big hit, I attempted to replicate the success of that activity by using bouncy balls to paint stripes onto a zebra. I printed a picture of a "stripe-less" zebra and placed the paper in a shallow cardboard box with the top flaps cut off. I then added several dollops of dark brown/black paint to the top and bottom for the balls to roll through.
Unlike the racquetball painting, during which T was very keen to just play with the paint covered ball, he had a BLAST rolling the balls around the box and watching them paint the paper. He might have gotten a little carried away with the stripes...
Ok...maybe he got A LOT carried away!
From a process standpoint, this craft was absolutely a success. From a product standpoint...we ended up with something vaguely zebra shaped (I cut it out after it dried) that was pretty much covered in paint. I think the mistake was choosing an animal that typically has an identifiable pattern. If I were to repeat (in fact, I still may do so), I would use something with more varied patterns like a frog or snake and use a few shades of the same color. I think that would give a better result.
From a process standpoint, this craft was absolutely a success. From a product standpoint...we ended up with something vaguely zebra shaped (I cut it out after it dried) that was pretty much covered in paint. I think the mistake was choosing an animal that typically has an identifiable pattern. If I were to repeat (in fact, I still may do so), I would use something with more varied patterns like a frog or snake and use a few shades of the same color. I think that would give a better result.
A Trip to the zoo
A week all about the zoo would not be complete without a trip to visit a zoo! We have annual passes to the zoo, which means we go there a lot. It is actually two hours away, but we don't mind the drive for an essentially cost free day of family fun. The pass paid for itself in two visits. But after reading and singing about animals all week and having fun making animal sounds, T was so much more excited on this zoo trip than ever before.