I had the opportunity to spend the afternoon at the zoo with my daughter today. Her school partners with the zoo to encourage the kids to learn about science. The fourth grade classes at her school spend a week at the zoo. The zoo is not yet open to visitors for the season so they are the only ones there, along with the zoo keepers.
The kids get to do all sorts of fun things throughout the week. Today they toured the zoo. Tomorrow they will be learning about animal scat. On Wednesday they will have the opportunity to feed the giraffes. Thursday the will be meeting with a zoo keeper to get some of their wonderings answered. Friday is reserved for making enrichment boxes for the animals. And that is just the morning!
Every afternoon the kids spend 1 hour observing the animal they picked. They are given a task to do while observing each day to give them focus. They also do quick writes and share things they learned with a partner. We spent the afternoon observing the Red Panda. We learned many things: he has long claws, he walks a similar path through his enclosure over and over, he "rubs his butt" on certain things on each trip around his path (the kids thought this was hilarious and didn't understand why he would need to mark his territory), and he likes to climb. We couldn't figure out what he was eating...it became our big wondering of the day.
It's all such a great experience for them. They were so excited today when I was there they could hardly contain themselves, but they did everything they were asked to do. They were enjoying their time at the zoo and out of the regular classroom setting and the learning that I heard being shared was awesome!
I wish all kids had an opportunity such as this. What an excellent experience!
I'm so glad kiddos in our district (and our own children) get this opportunity. It is a highlight of fourth grade for sure. Such a great chance to stop and think, watch, and really observe what is happening.
ReplyDelete