Sometimes Life is a ZOO!

I realize that last week's post was about preschool language group, but this week's lesson turned out so cute, I just couldn't resist talking about it again.

As you can guess by the title of this post, we have been talking about the Zoo in preschool. Here's what we did:

First we read the book "1,2,3, To the Zoo" by Eric Carle. My kids were immediately excited about this book because the first page showed favorite item....a TRAIN! As we looked through the book (there are only numbers, no words), we sequenced the story on the white board using some train cars I made and magnetic numbers. Each time we turned the page, I had my kiddos start chugging like a train to see what animal was coming next. Those simple movements and actions always keep them more engaged!

Next, we made our own zoo cages with a styrofoam meat tray, yarn, and pictures. The students chose which animals they wanted in their cage and then got to close them in by wrapping the yarn around. I think this activity would have been even cuter if we used stickers. I got so much language out of this craft and the kids were excited to be zookeepers!

The last thing we did invovled my monkey puppet and a plastic banana from my play food. We played the game "Do you have my banana?" and here's how you play:

1. All of the kids sit in a circle and one child is picked to be the monkey.

2. The child playing the monkey goes away for a minute while the banana is hidden in the lap of another student.

3. The "monkey" comes back and asks everyone "Do you have my banana?"

4. Once the banana is found, the child who was hiding it becomes the new monkey.

I wish so badly that I would have recorded this activity and that I could have shared it with all of you. The kids were so into it because they got to use the monkey puppet. Some of them even made the monkey do funny voices! By the time the "monkey" actually found the banana, the kids were positively giddy and it was WONDERFUL! Plus, for my lower students, this was a great way to work on yes/no questions and identifying peers. One of my students with apraxia was able to engage with his peers because "banana" is a word he can achieve sucess with. It was just one of those moments where I was reminded of how stinking awesome my job is. I love that. And I love that it happens often. I know there are many different versions of this game (i.e., "Doggy doggy, who has my bone?"), so I would highly recommend you adapt it with a puppet of your choice!

I've included the train cars to go with "1,2,3, To the Zoo" for you below. Let me know what you think!

1,2,3 To the Zoo

Clipart for this activity was purchased from Scrappin Doodles.