Thursday, February 21, 2008

Animal Classification Made Fun

Last week on my Tacoma Kids Weekly post, I mentioned that the Pt. Defiance Zoo would be free to Tacoma residents on Wednesday, February 20th. Guess where we were yesterday? At the zoo, of course. We try to take advantage of these frequent free days as often as we can. With the gorgeous weather, how could we not go? Plus it is a great place to do school.

We are starting our Orderliness Unit Study and part of that is animal classification. After a quick lesson at home about how animals are classified, we headed out the door with a classification- based scavenger hunt and clipboards. They were to find things like the species name for the Sumatran Tiger or the name of the male Odobenus rosmarus who lives at the zoo. In addition to finding the 11 things on their list, we just enjoyed the animals and the playground there. Here are some trip highlights:


We arrived just in time for the keeper talk at the Panthera tigris sumatrae enclosure. We had a great chance to observe one of them as she tossed him some bones to enjoy. Here you can see him crouched down ready to jump.



Here are the kids at the Bubalus depressicornis and Nomascus leucogenys enclosure. It was quite interesting to watch one of the Nomascus leucogenys act as if he was afraid of the baby Bubalus depressicornis (baby is behind the kids) while another Nomascus leucogenys groomed/picked at an adult Bubalus depressicornis .

Who says school work needs to be done at a desk or table? Here Sammy found a nice, comfy rock to recline on while he wrote the scientific name of his favorite zoo animal: the Spheniscus magellanicus.


The Delphinapterus Leucas is another favorite of my kids. Josh seemed particularly intrigued by that large thing swimming by.



Of course, no trip to the Pt. Defiance Zoo is complete without a visit with the family. I think all young Homo sapiens love this sculpture.


Then we helped Josh feed Ovis aries for the first time. He didn't know what to think of that.


Ever since they put in the Kids Zone, we can't go home until we visit there. Here's Josh taking his first trip down the otter slide. He loved it!



Mika loves to monkey around.



Meanwhile, Josh was checking out the flaps on this wall. If it is still there when he is older, he'll read about some of the amazing jumping abilities of several animals.




We found this cutie in the Kids Zone and wondered why the last half of his tail was a completely different color as the rest of his body. Unfortunately, there were no zoo keepers around to ask. Do you know why his tale would be so different?


And to make a great day complete, Mika found her first ladybug of the season.

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2 Comments:

Shadowfur said...

Mommy, look at this sentence:

Mike loves to monkey around.

MY NAME IS NOT MIKE! MY NAME IS MIKA!

Shadowfur said...

Another one:

We found this cutie in the Kids Zone and wondered why the last half of his tale was a completely different color as the rest of his body.

Tale? Tail!