At the end of Kindergarten every year, we always take our students to the Pittsburgh Zoo as final field trip. It is so much fun for the students and the adults! I am so excited to continue to use this unit and get the students even MORE excited about the trip!! The "We're Going to the Zoo" pack includes centers, readers, games and even things to use for the field trip!
The first center included in the pack is a Zoo Animals Syllable Sort Center. In this center, students will clap out the syllables of the different zoo animals and sort them into the various enclosures. However, the animals in the enclosures will not make real-life sense to be together, but only because they have the same amount of syllables! There is also a follow up worksheet for early finishers. The follow up worksheet directs students to cut and glue the zoo animals to the correct number of syllables! The syllables sort center is sold separately through the link below.
The second center within the Zoo Pack is the Zoo Animals Teen Ten Frame Game! In this center, students can read the teen ten frame and then sort between if the ten frame is true or false. Some examples of the teen ten frames are shown below. There is also a follow up worksheet for early finishers. The follow up worksheet directs students to fill in different teen ten frames! The Zoo Animals Teen Ten Frame Game is sold separately through the link below!
One of my favorite books to read for the zoo is "Animal Strike at the Zoo! It's True!" The book definitely has some silly components and is perfect for the Kindergarten age level, which is why I incorporated it into the zoo pack! The Story Extension activities include graphic organizers for text-to-self connections, predictions and sequencing the story! The craftivity is for the kiddos to make zoo animal puppets! The "Animal Strike at the Zoo! It's True!" extension activities are sold separately through the link below.
The animals included to make the puppets are: elephant, giraffe, hippo, lion, monkey, panda, penguin and zebra!
Before you go on your trip to the zoo, there's also an emergent reader for the students to read that will teach them unique facts about certain animals from the zoo: elephant, giraffe, hippo, kangaroo, lion, monkey, panda, peacock, penguin and zebra. The students enjoy the title of the book "Zookeeper in training" as if when they go to the zoo, they are masters of the zoo animals! This text can be challenging for Kindergarten, however, I still have them search for sight words that they know as we read it together. They love to learn the fun facts and they're even more excited when they see those animals at the zoo and shout out the facts!
After reading and learning all the new facts about the different animals, they love wearing the Zookeeper in Training name tags! The front looks like the picture below and the back has slots for teacher's name, school name, address, phone number and chaperone information.
Students can work together as a class to tally their favorite zoo animal to see as a class at the zoo. The "We Are Going to the Zoo!!" roll and color game offers a fun independent or paired activity!
Finally, after the zoo field trip, you can use the following days to create a "My Zoo Field Trip Memory Book" to allow students to write about their favorite and most memorable parts at the zoo!
