Zoo Fun

The focus of this unit was vocabulary for a class of mostly ESL students.

Vocabulary: Names of animals, zoo, circus, preserve, endangered, trunk, hoof, beak, bill, snout, fur, feathers, safari, zoo keeper, veterinarian

Facts: Some animals live in the zoo, circus, on a preserve or in the wild. Some animals are endangered.

Terminology for teacher's reference:

EXTINCT (EX) - A taxon is Extinct when there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual has died.

EXTINCT IN THE WILD (EW) - A taxon is Extinct in the wild when it is known only to survive in cultivation, in captivity or as a naturalised population (or populations) well outside the past range. A taxon is presumed extinct in the wild when exhaustive surveys in known and/or expected habitat, at appropriate times (diurnal, seasonal, annual), throughout its historic range have failed to record an individual. Surveys should be over a time frame appropriate to the taxon's life cycle and life form.

CRITICALLY ENDANGERED (CR) - A taxon is Critically Endangered when it is facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild in the immediate future, as defined by any of the criteria (A to E) as described below.

ENDANGERED (EN) - A taxon is Endangered when it is not Critically Endangered but is facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future, as defined by any of the criteria (A to E) as described below.

VULNERABLE (VU) - A taxon is Vulnerable when it is not Critically Endangered or Endangered but is facing a high risk of extinction in the wild in the medium-term future, as defined by any of the criteria (A to E) as described below.

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.

Barney Goes to the Zoo by Linda Cress Dowdy

Spot Goes to the Circus by Eric Hill

Is a Panda Pink and Purple, Book People Ltd., Guardian House

Does a Zebra Live in the Snow?, Book People Ltd., Guardian House

Little Gorilla by Ruth Bornstein

Who's Who at the Zoo by Lynn Offerman

Nellie's Knot by Ken Brown

Jungle babies, a felt play book by Golden Books

Hug by Jez Alborough

Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too? by Eric Carle

There's a Lion in the Jungle, by Wishing Well Books

From Head to Toe by Eric Carle

Curious George Goes to the Zoo

An excellent source for worksheets on this theme is The Learning Page. You have to sign up to become a member but it's free and the worksheets were great for this unit. They also had worksheets that reviewed senses, habitat, color words, positional words all based on this theme.

I made up some additional counting worksheets with clip art from Microsoft's Design Gallery. You can use animal crackers for sorting and counting.

At the end of this unit we pretended to go on a safari. We made binoculars out of paper towel rolls cut in half and stapled together. We set up the chairs like a tour bus and I was the guide. Each student got a turn to be an animal. They wore masks that I purchased from Oriental Trading. You can also hand draw or enlarge from elsewhere an animal head that you can staple to a headband.

Sort animals by habitat. Use photos/pictures of habitats such as ocean, desert, jungle, savannah, etc. Use plastic zoo animals or pictures of them and have students sort them to their correct home.

Discuss living and non-living. Sort into the two categories again using pictures or little objects.

Snack

Animal Crackers!

The Internet

Another zoo resource can be found at Early Thematic Units.

Go to Animal Planet for live cams and online games.

I see animals.

In the zoo,

In the zoo.

Elephants and giraffes,

Lions and seals,

Monkeys, too.

Art

Since I designed this unit to do early in the year the art work was very simple. The students made a zoo train. They colored pictures of the zoo animals and then cut around the outside. I glued them to a bright colored contruction paper rectangle and put black construction paper bars over the animal. I put a picture of a train engine at the front and that was it. This makes a nice bulletin board too!

Put out three different cards of photos of animals and let students guess which one doesn't belong. Examples: animals that have feathers vs. fur, animals that live in the ocean vs. animals that fly or live on land, animals with hooves vs. animals with webbed feet, animals with stripes vs. animals with spots, animals with long tails vs. little tails, animals with beaks vs. animals with snouts, etc. Instead of photos you can also use small plastic animals found in the Dollar store and Toys R Us. The small plastic animals might be easier and faster than finding a lot of pictures.