Instructional materials:
-Web Sites:
Yahoo's science-Zoology-Zoos
Electronic Zoo
Zoo sites
Birmingham ZOO, Visit the Animals
The web sites include pictures and facts to be shared with students in a group setting. Zoos allows the students to select the zoo in the U.S. which they want to learn more about. They can travel to the different zoos through the images on the screen. The students will decide what they need to take with the on a zoo trip and observe if each zoo has the same animal in an environment similar to its habitat.
-Eric lesson plan:
Zoo Animal Poetry
This lesson plan describes a poetry activity as a follow-up for a field trip to the zoo. After careful observation and notation of details, the students work cooperatively in groups to combine their information. They list five facts about each animal. Then each child creates a poem using a specific form about one of the animals, using five facts.
-Software
A Trip to the Zoo (can be used with Intellikeys)
Zurk's Learning Safari
Zoo Keeper
Type of Classroom Activity:
Group setting with large screen projector to show computer for whole class when using A Trip to the Zoo.
Groups of three working on Zoo Keeper.
One-on-one activity of Zurk's Learning Safari
Prerequisite skills:
Student Activities with
Time considerations and Tips for classroom management:
The unit on animals and their habitats with reinforcing trip to the zoo will be timeframed for a two-week period. The zoo trip will fall during the middle of the unit, so as to surround the event with pre- and post-activities.
The unit will begin with an interactive look at animals and what they look like. A Trip to the Zoo provides pictures of animals from Africa and North America, as well as aquatic and domestic animals.
Students will identify these animals and sound out how to spell each for part of that week's spelling list. Students enter this classroom at scattered times of the day, so that small group and one-on-one time is more practical than whole group experience. Habitat games, such as '"'O Deer'"' and '"'What's that Habitat?'"' will be set aside for whole period activities, followed by discussions. Students will explore encyclopedias for information on animal habitats, while others practice spelling and matching activities on Zurk's Safari. This software is good for interacting other skills with the topic.
The day before the field trip is spent on small group interaction with Zoo Keeper and preparing trip boards for habitat observations. '"'I wonder what I will see'"' writing exercise is also going on while others work on the computer. 
After the zoo trip, students will divide into small groups for the Zoo Poetry exercise. Students will be encouraged to re-write and '"'student publish'"' their poems. A spelling test and habitat matching test wrap up the unit. These last three activities will be used for student assessment.