Invite children to bring stuffed animals from home to create a classroom zoo. Encourage students to bring animals that are found at the zoo such as giraffes, elephants, monkeys and bears. Provide appropriate classroom stuffed animals as well. Allow students to create animal habitats for the stuffed animals using classroom supplies such as blocks and construction paper. Talk to students about the types of animals that share a habitat and that animals, such as penguins and zebras, cannot all share the same habitat. After students have built the zoo, provide students with free play time to be zoo visitors, animal keepers and veterinarians. If available, provide students with props such as a doctor's kit and pretend food for the animals.
Provide children with the opportunity to sample food that some animals at the zoo eat. Gather foods that herbivore and omnivore animals eat, such as carrots, grapes, apples, lettuce and bananas and allow students to sample each food and discuss the eating habits of different herbivore and omnivore animals. Provide students with cooked meat and fish to sample and talk about carnivore eating habits. if possible, contact a local zoo and ask what specific foods they give their animals; provide those foods for children to sample.Talk about which animal the students think eats each food and explain why.
Talk to the class about some popular zoo animals. Choose several popular animals such as tigers, polar bears and monkeys to compare. The specific animals and number of animals varies with the interests and size of each class. If the class has been on a field trip to a local zoo, choose animals that the children got a chance to visit. Ask the children to vote for their favorite animal. Draw a tally line for each child's vote, or write the children's name under their favorite animal. After all the children have voted, talk about the graph and the children's observation. Talk about the animal that the boys or girls like best and encourage the children to make other observations.