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Dear Zoo - a story about finding the right pet

busybookbank

Updated: May 5, 2021


Dear Zoo is a simple yet enjoyable book written by Rod Campbell and published by Macmillan. It has flaps which children love and is about the zoo sending different pets to someone but for different reasons they are not suitable. I read this book when I was younger and it is still one of my favourites. I love how it is simple but engages young children. I am sure that some children would disagree with some of the animals not being suitable and would love to have some of the more exotic pets featured in the story but I am not sure that the parents would agree.


Activities

  • Biscuit decorating

  • Charades

  • Building animal homes

  • Masks

  • Discussion

Cooking/Food

Who doesn't love animal biscuits? If you use a basic biscuit recipe then your child/children can decorate the biscuits or if you can get hold of some shape cutters and they can add the detail (you can also do this with bought biscuits, there is no judgement here). While doing this you could talk about the different noises the animals make and why they were not chosen to stay as the pet. A good discussion could also be what mischief the animals could get up to in your house. The snake hiding and scaring guests for example or the elephant taking up a whole room and people trying to squish past him/her.


Outdoor

If you want a quick game then you could play charades and you and your child/children can act out the animals and the people not acting need to guess the animal. Younger children could use sounds but to make the game harder older children can play the game properly with no sounds allowed. An activity that could take a bit longer is to give your child/children an animal name and then they can create a home for that animal using resources in the garden or outside area. If they have a toy animal then they could build their home around them. When they have finished encourage your child to tell you why they used what they used and why they think the animal would like. You could include talking about different habitats animals live in if you wanted and how they are adapted to the environment, for example their colours to help them camouflage.


Indoor

Animal masks can be made and then can be used when the book is read. These can be made using paper plates or by drawing the animal face on a piece of card in the shape of the animal. The animals involved are; elephant, giraffe, monkey, snake, camel, lion, frog and of course the puppy. The child/children can decorate their masks with crayons/felt tips or they can get more creative and use different coloured paper or materials. This could be a good time to talk about how different animals feel; soft, smooth, slimy and they could use materials to reflect this if you have them available. Children seem to love a bit of dressing up and it encourages imaginative play.



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