One of our favorite things to do in the summer is visit the zoo. Lions, and tigers, and bears! What’s your favorite animal to see at the zoo?
Books:
Zoo Looking by Mem Fox
Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
Peek-a-Zoo! by Marie Torres Cimarusti
Click Here to Find These Books on the Heights Library Catalog
Rhymes & Fingerplays:
Zoo Animals (tune: If You’re Happy and You Know It)
If you want to be an eagle, flap your wings
If you want to be an eagle, flap your wings
If you want to be an eagle, if you want to be an eagle
If you want to be an eagle, flap your wings
If you want to be an elephant, swing your trunk…
If you want to be a giraffe, stand up tall
If you want to be a lion, roar out loud
If you want to be a monkey, jump up high
Elephants Goes Like This and That
An elephant goes like this and that
He’s terribly big
And he’s terribly fat
He has no fingers
He has no toes
But goodness gracious what a nose!
At the Zoo (I’ve included the movements I did, but you can also act out this rhyme with puppets)
At the zoo, we saw a bear (shade eyes, then look surprised)
With great big paws and shaggy hair (hands like claws, touch hair)
At the zoo, a zebra we found (shade eyes, then look surprised)
With black and white stripes all around (crisscross hands in front of body)
At the zoo, a giraffe so tall (shade eyes, then look surprised)
It could look right over the top of the wall (hands at eye level, lower under chin as though peeking over a wall)
At the zoo, the monkeys run (shade eyes, then look surprised)
And jump and swing having lots of fun!
Waddling Penguins
Penguins, penguins having fun
Waddling in the winter sun
Waddling fast and waddling slow
Waddling to and waddling fro
Penguins, penguins having fun
Waddling in the winter sun!
Art Project:
The fierce lion is one of the most amazing animals to see at the zoo. For our project this week, we made a handprint version of this majestic creature. Kids dipped their hands into yellow paint and pressed it onto a sheet of paper. They then received a yellow circle, which was the lion’s head. Kids drew on eyes, a nose, whiskers, and so on and cut little slits all the way around the circle to make the lion’s mane. They then glued the circle onto the handprint.
*Photo taken from Busy Bee