Too Cool Zoo School!

Kyrie petting a young alligator.

I am very excited that Kyrie has been able to attend homeschool classes offered at the Columbus Zoo this year. Each month there is a new topic that is introduced & discussed via a slideshow presentation. There is an animal visitor, a game/activity and then a visit to an animal habitat at the zoo where the discussion continues. We are very fortunate to have this resource available to us, and I have been very impressed with the instructor and the quality of the lessons presented. Though Kyrie is one of the youngest in each session, she is able to participate and contribute to the discussions and always leaves with new information. I am so sad that I didn't have my camera with me for the first two sessions in which we learned about turtles & tortoises and penguins respectively. Getting to pet a penguin was a super-cool experience for all of us! I've learned from my mistakes and came prepared for this month's session about animal adaptations where the two animal visitors were an alligator and an armadillo.

This armadillo was so sleepy!

LOVE this photo of the kids petting the armadillo!

This session's activity was a lab in which the children learned about bird beaks/bills as an adaptation for food acquisition. At each station, the children were presented with a type of food a bird might eat and given a choice of tools that represented bird beaks & bills (eg. tweezers, tongs, slotted spoons, etc.). The children used each tool to see which one would be the best to get the food and then matched the tool to the kind of bird beak/bill it represented. This was a great hands-on learning activity!