Zoo Animals: Week 1

This week began our two week study of zoo animals! We started out the week reading "Zoo Looking" and discussed the many different animals found in a zoo. I then read "Monkey and Me", which is about a little girl and her stuff monkey who pretend to be different zoo animals. I had the kids guess what animal they were being and then we all acted out the animal together. During centers this week I brought a puppet theater for the kids to play in with some zoo animal puppets! 

They loved this! Another center we had was an animal dig.

In our block center I had the kids build a zoo for the beanie babies. 

On Tuesday we read the book "Who's New at the Zoo?". After we read it we named some animals that had been mentioned in the book. The animal I highlighted from the book was the zebra. I showed the students some pictures of real zebras and their babies. We talked about how when the babies were born they had brown stripes instead of black to help them hide in the tall brown grass. This fact was new to me too! During centers we made a Z zebra to go along with our learning of the letter Z this week!

Every morning we sang our Z song and I had the students come up and find/circle a Z in the song. 

On Wednesday we read the book "Hello, Mommy ZooBorns!" which is about mommies and their babies at the zoo. After reading it we discussed what all the animals had in common and what we had in common with them, we all have mommies! It was cool to see them realize that animals have moms to take care of them just like we do. During centers we continued with our Z theme. I had the kids use a toothpick to trace a printed Z by poking holes along the lines. They loved this and were super focused! It was great fine motor practice. 

  I also had them do a dauber Z sheet. 

Thursday we read the book "Elephants Upclose". I love these books because they have excellent large pictures of the animal they are highlighting. After reading it we discussed some new vocabulary words: tusk, trunk, and herd. During centers we made elephants out of a paper plate. 

Our herd of elephants! Another center we had was magnetic letters. I made a few sheets with traced letters on them that spelled various simple words such as hat, cat, bat, mop, dog, frog, and sun. 

Friday we practices writing the letter Z using salt trays! 

Then I let them have free time to write letters or their name! 

We read the book "Big Cats Upclose" which was by the same author as the elephant book we read the previous day. After reading we discussed more vocabulary words: canines, predator, and prey.

During centers we made a lion face! 

Another center we had, that the kids loved, was an animal toss. They had to toss the zoo animals into their zoo cages! 

They got all of their animals! We had a fun week of learning. Stay tuned for our second week learning about zoo animals!