Zookeeper Animal Scavenger Hunt

A to Zoo Animals with Mother Goose Time

Yes, another field trip to the Zoo!

In the curriculum box, there is a Zoo Animals Identification booklet for each child. I laminated all the cards and put them together for the boys. I added a photo for the Zookeeper I.D. page and the boys have been pretty excited about their little books. On one side of the card is the letter of alphabet and the reverse has the picture of the corresponding animal.

We were supposed to add a new card to the booklet each time we learn about a new one... at least, that's what it suggests in the Teacher Guide.

The boys dad suggested that we go to the SD Zoo today since the MGT topic is about zoo animals. Mr A was eager to bring the alligator buddy we made yesterday and his booklet. He also suggested that we take all of the other animals and add the cards as we find them at the zoo. A scavenger hunt for live animals! Great idea, little man... one item from Mother Goose Time for on-the-go learning. This guy is catching on how to take learning everywhere.

Before we left though, I added another hole punch in each of the cards and to their books. The cards came pre-hole punched from MGT, but Mr Z figured out that it was rather difficult to keep them in order and find the animal he was looking for. So, I added a second ring to the bottom, so that it opened more like a book and the boys could look through it easier to find the animal they want to look at. So, if you are doing A to Zoo Animals too and have people with small hands, I suggest using a second ring at the bottom of the cards. The kids will appreciate it more.

Mr Z and I hanging out on the gorilla.

B is for Bird. We found the macaws pictured on the zookeeper card.

C is for Camel. This guy was up close and personal trying to eat the grass near the railing.

L is Llama. ...even though this llama doesn't look exactly like the one on the card, they are relatives and Mr A thought it was close enough to get added to their booklets.

Z is Zebra. Normally the zebras are too far away to really look at, but this guy was  munching away on some food and refused to stop. I couldn't wait all day for him to lift his head. I was impressed by its ears though. They're pretty funny looking.

O is for Otter. We love finding the otter. Sometimes he plays with the monkeys, other times he just does silly things while swimming... like curl in a donut and chase his own tail.

H is for Hippo.

Mr A was asking about the gharials the entire time, so I made sure it was our last stop. Alligators were fresh in our minds and these guys fascinate Mr A for some reason. He couldn't really tell me why but did mention he likes their skinny snouts.

It was funny to watch this turtle climb on the gharial's back to sun himself. The turtle's idea of a log didn't last very long, the gharial didn't like him up there and swam off to find a better spot.

We noticed their texture and figured it was pretty close to the fabric swatches I had out yesterday. Mr Z didn't want to leave this guy. He liked looking at it for some reason too... maybe because it was so close to the glass.

Anyway, we had a good time finding animals from our zookeeper cards and the boys are excited to have their booklets filled a little bit more with animal pictures.

Happy Learning.

A is for Alligator

A to Zoo Animals with Mother Goose Time

Day 1 Alligators

June of 2016 curriculum from Mother Goose Time is all about animals from A to Z and reviewing the alphabet/numbers/shapes that we've been learning about throughout the last several months.

We started early with this unit. I'm not sure why, but the boys weren't really into the water unit: Bubbles Boats & Floats for May. I thought it would be much more of a hit. (I also had some personal issues the last few weeks and that may have effected how to I taught the subject.)

Anyway, when I mentioned we'd be starting a new unit and the first topic was Alligators, they both groaned. We had just did this topic a few weeks ago when we talked about rivers. So, I knew we had to change up the activities quite a bit and they had to be different.

No matter what we actually do, I use the focus questions from the Teacher Guide book to lead our conversations and activities. If the activities actually follow what the guide describes, that's a whole different story.

I remembered that I had some fabric samples stashed away to use as textile/sensory activities. I pulled a few out that looked like good alligator skin replicas. The boys felt them and decided what each of them thought was the closest to real alligator skin.

Then, using the coloring pages and extra materials from the Member Resources tab of the MGT website, they tried making rubbings of the different textures. Some worked and some didn't. But the boys had fun finding out what worked best.

When that got boring, they wanted to go outside to play. Mr A brought some animals and his safari equipment to play "find the animals." Mr Z wanted to be an alligator and we found our alligator hat in the dress-up box so he could look like one. I brought some ping pong balls and a foam die to play a game where the boys rolled the die and collect that many alligator eggs from the nest. But, that didn't happen.

We made a small nest and since Mr Z was the alligator, he wanted to protect it. He watched over his eggs and when Mr A (he was a Gila Monster) got too close, Mr Z would lash out. But the alligator did let his guard down for a second and the lizard stole a few eggs. Alligator chased after lizard until he gave up the eggs.

Then, a safari man was taking a trek to collect animals for his zoo. He found a nice snake then stumbled across the alligator and its nest. Luckily, this alligator was nice and let the safari man take the eggs to make sure they were healthy.
We talked a little bit about how the temperature of the nest (egg incubation) determines if the alligator hatch-lings will be boys or girls. A cooler nest produces girls and where the nest is located and what it is made of determines the temperature.  Mr A thought that was weird.

Lately the boys have been liking small stuffed animals. I have been liking sewing this week and have gotten a few projects done, but have left all my things out. So, I thought it would be fun to make our own alligator buddies to play with. The boys picked out the fabric remnants they wanted, I drew a rough pattern, then cut out the pieces we needed. Mr A was the stuffing-giver (and he mentioned that the stuffing looked like a beehive or wasp's nest) and they both picked out the eyes they wanted. They're not great, but sure are fun.

Mr A wanted his to be more like a crocodile and its snout more pointed. He's happy with it... and the two different eyeballs.

What fun alligators has been... again. Even though the boys were not excited about having a repeat topic, they sure did have a great time with the add-on activities we did. Yay for animals... its one of our favorite subjects.

The States of Water Exploration

Bubbles Boats and Floats with Mother Goose Time

The States of Water: Liquid, Solid, Vapor

Freezing water and melting ice cubes with animals and treasures inside... photo diary.

Investigating Rainbows with MGT

Bubbles Boats and Floats with Mother Goose Time

Rainbows have always been fascinating. We love color in this house and so I think that's why we like rainbows.

I had a tray of salt set out on the coffee table in the morning, along with some dry paintbrushes. Underneath the pile of salt, I had colored the rainbow coloring page that you can print off of the Member Resources tab of the MGT site. The boys got salt everywhere, but were excited to find a picture underneath the pile of white. After, they dug it out, they drew designs with their brush for a little while.

What better way to learn about rainbows, than to go outside and make your own. Prisms are tricky at first until you get the hang of how they work. Mr Z wasn't too thrilled with them, but Mr A was able to angle the prism just right to make a few rainbows himself.
We talked a little bit about how a real rainbow is made... the sunlight reflecting off of water/rain in the sky. We also experimented with putting the hose on a mist setting and making our own rainbow that way.

We also discovered that with a triangular prism, you can see some silly things when you look through them and didn't really work as glasses since they make you walk funny. That was a silly time.

MGT provided a dominoes game with various pictures. We started with one card on the ground and took turns matching one side of the side to the open end of the domino train. The boys had trouble finding the 'open end' since they didn't really understand what I meant. They just wanted to match the cards they had to the ones in the middle.

However, when all the domino cards were placed, Mr Z noticed that the whole thing looked like a good house for some animals. He ran into the house and brought back the bin of MGT counters from previous months. The domino game turned into a house and a farm for the different counters.

During craft time, I thought these two things were rather fun. Mr A on the left was testing the different color markers so he could the right shade. Mr Z on the right was cutting his rainbow paper to make his own puzzle. He would make a cut and then put the pieces back together.

Lots of simple and engaging activities provide a day full of learning fun!

My Favorite Comparison

Bubbles Boats and Floats with Mother Goose Time

Day 4 Alligators ...continued...

The Little Goose booklet had an idea to color some popsicle sticks like alligators and have the child put them through a slot in an old container. I just did the alligator sticks. The boys made their own games with them and had quite the time. Mr Z wouldn't let them go for a few days. He liked to take them everywhere. Because we did a day about alligators, he says that they are one of his favorite animals.

Now, most of you know that we thoroughly enjoy our crafts around here. But this Alligator A was by far my favorite to watch. The different executions and visions of both boys was amazing to watch.

Mr Z started his project by deciding he wanted to cut his letter A paper that was provided in the Daily Discovery Bag from MGT and make a cheetah. He spent quite some time cutting the entire letter into small pieces. 

"These will be his spots." Mr Z said.

Mr A was well on his way making his alligator like the instruction page/picture. I did help him draw the teeth on the white paper. He was getting rather frustrated that he couldn't figure out the method to making the zig zag shape. Mr A cut on the lines I drew very well after I helped a bit.

I grabbed Mr Z a piece of paper so he had some place to put all these tiny green pieces. He started gluing and his method is so neat to watch. Mr A even noticed what he does while he glues. Mr Z puts some glue on the paper (size varies), then keeps placing a piece on until all of the glue is covered. If he presses the paper down and glue squishes out of the side, he adds another paper to cover it up.

Below was favorite thing to watch him do. Mr Z used clear glue and made a large puddle in the middle of his paper. He drizzles it around and then fills in any holes. I suppose its mesmerizing to watch glue as it drips. Then, when the clear glue was not coming out very easily, because it was nearly gone, he grabbed the white glue to continue making the glue pile bigger.

His glue glob looked rather neat as he kept adding more. I would ask if he had enough glue there and Mr Z would answer matter-of-fact, "No, I don't." Then would keep on drizzling glue. His pile reminded me of a marble.

Finally, Mr Z was finished with the glue and started adding his paper.

When Mr Z's "cheetah" was complete with sticker eyes and some teeth that Mr A made, Mr Z was super excited that he had finished his project. He was even more happy that it was about the same size as his cheetah animal.

I love this project that Mr Z completed, mostly because watching his process was so fascinating. I didn't advise or try to help at all. What he did completely on his own makes me smile.

I love how the eyes are looking different directions and the teeth are sideways on the head. I love the abstract design and its overall awesomeness.

Here are the two finished projects side by side. Done by a 5.5 year old alligator that followed the picture vs a 3 year old that wanted to make a cheetah instead.

(Mr Z climbed on my lap as I'm writing this post. He says in a disappointed voice, "But I didn't put enough spots." I explained that he worked hard and it is great just the way it is and he was satisfied with that.)

I love this comparison of the different ways that one project can be done. The vision that the child has is great and can only be let out if they are allowed to explore. I'm certainly glad that I let the boys do their own thing and create what ever they wanted that day.

Check out the MGT blog Inspired Learning too

Multi-Age Learning