Here is a great list of books about zoo animals and accompanying activities that can help your child learn. Our family has read the first one on a chance discovery at the library and it was a hit! Please note this list was compliled by teachers and copied from The K Crew.
- Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae - Read and discuss this book about wild animals. The pages describe the characteristics of each animal. As a class, brainstorm/write a list of descriptive words for some of the animals (hippopatomus, giraffe, lion, chimpanzee, etc.) . Students may then use these lists to illustrate and fill in the blanks in their own "Jungle" booklet: "The lion ___________." "The gorilla ___________." "The rhinoceros ___________." "The snake ___________." etc.
- Biggest, Strongest, Fastest by Steve Jenkins - Read and discuss this fact-filled book about wild animals. From the descriptions in the text, create "animal riddles" (This animal has four legs. This animal is gray. It is the largest land animal, etc.) Students work in pairs to compose as many riddles as they can. They go "quiz" other peers, students/teachers in other grades, then they take them home to "quiz" their parents.
- The Zoo Book by Jan Pfloog - After reading, have the students "buzz" about the animals they want to see at the zoo. Give each student an old magazine (National Geographic is best!) to cut pictures of wild animals. Students should find 6-8 pictures, glue them to large index cards, and label them by name. Then they are given the following words (copied on cardstock for durability): "At" "I" "see" "zoo" "can" "the" Students cut the words apart, place in logical order ("At the zoo, I can see..."), and add an animal card at the end to complete the sentence. They may read their sentences to a peer, a younger student, or they may write their sentences in a self-made book.
- The Mixed Up Chameleon by Eric Carle
- Monkeys by Susan Canizares
- Zoo-Looking by Mem Fox - Read this great Mem Fox tale about a little girl's visit to the zoo. Students will follow the book's pattern to create what they want to see at the zoo: I looked at the _____ and the ______ looked back. Students create torn paper models/pictures of their animals, too.
- Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert - Students are provided with lots of (pre-cut) shapes, in various colors and sizes. Using their knowledge of zoo animal characteristics and shapes, they create animals. Some students even want to add "zoo details" (cage bars, ropes, tire swings, rocks, etc)
- Put Me In the Zoo by Robert Lopshire
- Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathman - Our classes love the idea that the animals sneak out of the zoo and into BED with the zookeeper! This is a great one to act out while students take turns reading the pages.
- Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell - After reading this book, students complete their own "Dear Zoo" booklet, with descriptive flaps for each animal ("too naughty," "too tall," etc.). This activity can be found in the Teacher Created Materials Thematic Animals Unit.
- Zoo Do's & Don'ts by Todd Parr - Following the cues from the book, each table of students (four students per table) creates its own "Zoo Do's & Don'ts" list. Once they've finalized the lists, they transfer them to posterboard, complete with illustrations. These are a great review before our trip to the zoo!
- If I Ran the Zoo by Dr. Seuss - The title itself leads to the obvious activity in creative writing. Students spend 5-7 minutes elaborating/sharing their responses before writing/illustrating what would happen: "If I ran the zoo....."
- My Visit to the Zoo by Aliki - After reading this book, we make predictions about what OUR visit to the zoo will be like, filling in the blanks on a predictable chart: Maybe we will see a _______. Or maybe we will see a _______. Maybe we will see a _______. Or maybe we will see a ______.
- Inside a Zoo in the City by Alyssa Satin Capucilli - The text in this story builds upon itself, adding a new character on each page. Our classes love to read this book over and over again. Students recreate their own zoo rebus story using animal stickers.
- If Anything Ever Goes Wrong at the Zoo by Mary Jean Hendrick - Students love this silly tale about a little girl who gives an open invitation to the zoo animals "if anything ever goes wrong at the zoo." After reading and discussing the story, students write their own invitations to the zoo, explaining how they could take care of certain animals (the monkeys, because they have a banana tree in the back yard, etc.) : Dear Zookeeper, If anything ever goes wrong at the zoo, You can send me the ____________ because I have ____________. Love, _______
- Miss Mary Mack by Mary Ann Hoberman - This is a "souped-up" version of the traditional chant. It is the perfect book for finding rhyme pairs and creating NEW couplets.
- Zoo by Gail Gibbons - After reading this book, we make a list of all the animals in it. We review alphabetizing by putting the first four in "ABC order" as a group. Students are given a sentence strip and a page divided into 10 blocks (9 blocks with animal clipart and name, 1 blank block). Students illustrate/label a different zoo animal in the empty block. Then they cut the blocks apart and glue them in alphabetical order on the sentence strip (vertically is usually easier for them).
- From Head to Toe by Eric Carle
- Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Eric Carle - After reading this patterned book, students create their own At the Zoo... booklet. Students illustrate the appropriate animal (Flamingo, elephant, polar bear, etc.) and add speech bubbles to each page, following the text pattern: "Flamingo, flamingo," I said at the zoo. "Flamingo, flamingo," I like you!
Two other great activities they suggested, that are not related to specific books are:
- After drawing each animal, students dictate which body parts to label. It's an easy assessment to let them lead this activity. Some children have never heard the word "hoof" or "mane" before, so this can easily become a vocabulary lesson as well.
- To further emphasize unique characteristics of the animals, we write a chart following the pattern: "The important thing about elephants is that they have trunks ." "The important thing about ________ is that they have ______."
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