The Life of a Running Momma: Weekly Learning Theme: Zoo

I found out about a toddler program at the zoo going on the last few weeks in January and first couple in February. You could sign up for 4 Thursdays or 4 Saturdays. I chose Thursdays and Carter and I really enjoyed the first class. The week after our first class I had planned to do a winter/snow learning theme, but the highs were supposed to hit into the 60's and 70's so I decided to bump that week back and instead enjoy a week focusing on zoo animals. The week was one of the first ones I planned and it was crazy going back through and seeing how different my goals were for Carter when we first started these. Most of the activities were just for fun without specific objectives in mind. I ended up keeping many of the fun activities but also adding in some more challenging tasks that fit where Carter is at now.

Listed below are the objectives I am focusing on for the themed weeks. I have updated our objectives from the original ones we focused on because Carter mastered those skills. I plan to continue to implement activities to practice and reinforce our previous objectives while putting more emphasis on our new objectives. Some of them won't necessarily be targeted with specific activities during our weeks, but I wanted to list them to help me remember to practice them continually. The highlighted objectives are ones Carter received exposure to during our theme this week:

Take turns in a simple game.
Understand the meaning of mine, his, hers.
Group objects based on a category (sort by defining feature). Since Carter was doing so well sorting by shape and color I already started having him sort by other features.
String beads or other objects.
Count to 3 and understand what the numbers mean. Carter can count to 3, but we're still working on understanding what each number means.

Activities/Movement:

While grocery shopping on Monday I found a big container of safari animals with 101 pieces for just $5! I splurged and bought it for Carter and I'm so glad I did! I was able to utilize the toys for various learning opportunities. To start off I showed it to Carter and let him free play and explore with the animals which he loved.

Once Carter had the chance to play with his new toys I was excited to use them for learning. First we sorted the animals by the kind of animal. Carter did a great job and I was really impressed because there were so many varieties. For example there were black, gray, brown, and orange gorillas and on top of that there were gorillas standing and gorillas on all fours. Carter didn't let any of that trick him and was able to get all of the animals in their appropriate pile. After he had them all sorted we used them to practice counting. Then we put all the animals back into one pile and sorted them based on color. Carter didn't like that quite as much because he didn't want to mix the different kinds of animals, but we did it relatively quickly since there were only 4 different colors of animals.

Putting an elephant with the other elephant.

His favorite animal to put in a pile was the kangaroo.

Next we used the animal figurines to play a version of charades. I poured all of the animals out into a pile and Carter and I took turns grabbing an animal out. When we pulled out an animal we made the noise the animal makes and/or showed how they move. Carter had a blast. His favorite animals to act out were the elephant and the kangaroo. He thought it was hilarious when I got crocodile because I tried to get low to the ground and ended up dragging my belly on the floor. This game was the hardest time he's had with taking turns. Each time he finished acting out an animal he wanted to grab another one and go again so I'd remind him it was my turn. I'd like to play the game again, but hide the animals we pulled out and have the other person guess what animal we were acting out.

Carter acting out elephant.

I used rice and the animal figurines to put together a zoo sensory bin for Carter while he was napping. I surprised him with it when he woke up and he absolutely loved it! He did pretty well keeping the rice inside the tub and enjoyed burying the animals. He also liked to scoop up the rice and put it inside different cups. I figured he would really enjoy the tub with how much he loves playing with sand at the park. After seeing how much he loved the zoo sensory bin, I've been coming up with sensory bins we could do to go along with our upcoming learning themes.

Carter also enjoyed playing with 2 different zoo animal puzzles we have. One is from my classroom and the other was given to him as a present from his Great Aunt Netta. As he put the puzzles together he loved to yell out what animal he had made.

Craft:

Using a paper plate we made a lion mask. I cut fringe around the outside of the paper plate for the lion's mane. Then Carter colored the face yellow and the mane brown with some brown on the face for good measure. Then I cut out holes for eyes and a mouth and added popsicle sticks to hold the mask up. Carter didn't like it when I wore the mask so I handed it to him and he'd only wear it with the white side of the plate facing out. He did think it was hilarious to have Harper wear the mask.

Using the zoo animal figurines and paint, Carter made animal tracks on paper. We just used pink paint I had already mixed up from a different craft he'd worked on for Elise's room and he put the animals' feet down into the paint to create tracks on the paper. He thought it was quite funny and even made the kangaroo bounce across the page.

I was planning out Carter's nursery before we knew whether he'd be a boy or girl, I was planning on a monkey theme for a boy or an elephant theme for a girl. For Elise we are switching the nursery over to an elephant theme. I had seen an adorable handprint elephant craft here and knew I wanted to create it for her room. We would do Ty's handprint, my handprint, and Carter's handprint to look like elephants. I'd had it on my to-do list forever and was always preoccupied with other crafts and activities that went along with Carter's learning theme, so I figured zoo week was the perfect time to finally create the elephant handprint craft. I was so pleased with how it turned out!

The finished product with Ty's hand on the left, mine on the right, and Carter's in the middle.

Special Snack:

As a special treat I picked up animal crackers at the store for Carter to have for a snack during the week. He was thrilled beyond belief for his treat. I poured out some of the animal crackers and we sorted them by animal, although some were hard to tell. Carter would pick up and animal, tell me what it was, and make it's sound. There were a few crackers he picked up, stared at with a puzzled look on his face, and then ate because he couldn't figure out what they were.

Make Believe:

One of my favorite activities during the week was acting out the book "Goodnight Gorilla". We've read the book so many times that I didn't re-read it before pretending to be characters in the book which I would have done if Carter didn't already know the book so well. I picked out stuffed animals to represent each animal in the book that the gorilla releases from it's cage. Then my mom and dad who were visiting dumped toys out of baskets and put them over the stuffed animals to look like cages. I gave Carter my car keys and told him he was going to pretend to be the gorilla while pointing at the gorilla on the cover. Then I grabbed a flashlight and told him I was the zoo keeper. I read the book, showing him the pictures, as we walked through the living room releasing all the animals from their cages. Then Carter carried all the stuffed animals to the floor where I'd set up pillows for us and I pretended to be shocked by all the animals like the zoo keeper's wife and carried all the animals back to the zoo. At the end Carter and I laid on the floor and pretended to sleep. It was so much fun!

Letting the giraffe out of it's cage.

Looking at the book to see what happened next.

Thanks to my dad for thinking to grab the camera and take some pictures for us!

Carter excitedly waiting for me to pop my eyes open in shock and find all the animals in my bed!

All throughout the week we made animal noises and pretended to be animals by walking or moving like them. To kill time while waiting at the doctor's office I told Carter different animals and he'd move like them: hopping like a kangaroo, slithering like a snake, flapping his arms like a bird. We randomly fit this game in whenever we had the chance and Carter enjoyed it so much sometimes he'd look at me and roar so I'd start playing with him!

Songs:

Of the 6 years I taught our field trip for 5 of those years was the zoo. I collected lots of songs, poems, and activities over the years. One of the kids' favorite songs was "We're Going to the Zoo" so of course I had to sing it with Carter. I also let him watch a music video on youtube.

We also listened to a song on youtube called "The Animal Sounds Song". Carter liked guessing which animal made the sound before they revealed the animal in the song.

Field Trip/Interactive Experience:

We visited the zoo for our Nature Buddies toddler program. Carter had a blast and even got to meet a screech owl. We toured the Arctic area of the zoo and didn't have much time to look at animals after the program before leaving for lunch. Carter chose to go look at the grizzly bear and the chimpanzees before heading home. I'll be posting more about our Nature's Buddies program once we've attended all 4 sessions.

Excited about the screech owl!