The ideas in this lesson plan are geared for awareness of what kinds of animals might be found in a zoo and what is the purpose for having zoos.
What is a Zoo?
Explain to your child that a zoo is a place where people go to see all different kinds of animals. The animals come from all over the world and give us the chance to see them live and learn about where they come from. Zoos do their best to adapt to an animal's natural environment to make them feel more at home. For instance, you wouldn't put a penguin in the same environment as a lion, would you? Why not? Because a penguin comes from the Arctic where it is very cold all the time, while a lion comes from Africa where it is very not all the time. The penguin would not like the heat and could die from it.
How Does a Zoo Help Animals?
Also explain that a zoo is a place used to help animals who are almost extinct. Explain the meaning of extinct to your child. For instance, the National Zoo has panda bears and they are hoping that by bringing panda bears together, they can make more and more panda bears to help them stay in existence. The zoo helps animals while allowing people to see them in their natural environments.
What Kinds of Animals are at the Zoo?
Explain that many different animals are found at the zoo. Have your child tell you some of the animals they think they would find at a zoo. After discussing this, tell your child that while most of the animals at the zoo are wild and can be very dangerous, like lions, tigers, and polar bears, you can also find animals that people like to keep as pets, such as snakes, mice, and birds.
Activity
Collect pictures of baby animals and adult animals of the same species. Laminate the pictures. Have your child match the baby animal with its parent.
Craft - Leafy Animals
Materials:
- Leaves of different sizes, shapes, and colors
- Construction paper
- Glue
- Paper towels
- Something large, heavy, and flat to press the leaves with (encyclopedia or something like that)
Directions:
- On a piece of construction paper, lay out some of the leaves and see what animals their shapes remind you of.
- When you have put together a couple of animals that you like, use white glue on the backs of the leaves to carefully glue everything together and keep it in that shape. Then glue the whole animal shape to the construction paper.
- When the glue is dry, put a paper towel over the animal shape and then place the heavy object on top. Leave it that way for a day or two and the leaves will stay flat.
More Zoo Animal Fun
Click on the pictures below to print these coloring pages and activities. Once you have clicked on a picture, just right click on your mouse and choose the print option.
Other Lesson Plans
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