the zoo

We finished up learning about the zoo over here. We started off learning about the zoo keeper and what they do. Then we made zoo keepers and attached the sentence,

"A zoo keeper feeds and cleans the animals."

I used Deanna Jump's zoo unit to teach alligators. We made alligator pie and wrote a how to using interactive writing. Then they wrote their own how to make alligator pie.

We made a bubble map to chart our new learning. They used this resource to help them write to inform about alligators.

We made alligators and wrote about them.

We practiced making mental images using the poem my neighbor's dog is purple. We made mental images at the beginning and again at the end.

This recording sheet for mental images is from Deanna Jump.

We compared giraffes and zebras. We made giraffes and zebras from Julie Lee's faces of the zoo unit. I am loving the long blue tongues. All of the animals below are from her unit.

We also learned about cheetahs. We used our thumbprints for the spots.

We learned about elephants.

At the end of our unit I asked the question,

"Would you rather work on a farm or in the zoo?" This came from Kim Adsit. If they wanted to work on both they got a bandana and hat. We made a double bubble thinking map to record their answers.

This is my zoo word wall to help them with their writing.

Here are a few fun fiction books about the zoo.