Zoo and Jungle Thematic Units
Two of my favorite thematic units are the Jungle and the Zoo. These two units are such great companions! I begin with the study of the jungle and then move into study of zoo animals.
Kids love learning about animals, their habitats, and way of life. These fun units weave academic concepts into STEM in fun and engaging ways. Exciting and engaging academic content is also enhanced with this animal based theme. My kids love playing games such as Monkey Food, Zoo Zap, and Zero Zebras to practice targeted skills.
I begin by purchasing a roll of jute and then ask my students to construct large leaves. I staple the leaves to the vines (jute), and weave across the ceiling of our classroom, or learning space. The magic immediately begins at this point. As we create snakes, toucans and more, the vines come alive with jungle life. Many of the students become so engaged with this transformation, they ask to take supplies home so they can create a jungle space in their own home.
Next we move to the transformation of our dramatic play area. This space will now be filled with safari costumes, books, pictures, and realia of jungle animals. Binoculars, sketch pads, and more. I love to have my students involved in the set-up. The space has so much more meaning than if it is magically transformed in the evening when they are at home.
Because we house animals in zoos to study and learn from, the science center is a great place to set up a zoo with a lot of STEM benefits. I have dozens of small plastic zoo animals that I place in the sensory tub, a box of small blocks of varying sizes and shapes, and some other zoo-making supplies. My students love creating and re-creating a zoo each time they step into the science center. I have plenty of books and photos of real zoos, paper pencils, and more, to help those creative juices flowing.
There is always time for some high quality art projects. Creating the animals of the jungle is not only fun, but is a great way to extend reading experiences and build story comprehension skills. These activities below have been created at the end of each animal study.
Hopefully, you have a zoo close to your home you will be able to take a field trip to enhance the learning. These field trips are some of my fondest memories of time-spent with my students. Since I no longer live field trip distance from a zoo, I now take them there virtually by visiting kids.sandiegozoo.org. Although it is not quite the same as that real-life, up-close experience, it is the next best thing. The live video cameras do allow students to see the animals interact with each other in their zoo habitat.
The learning games in our high-quality thematic units are academically challenging in a play-based way, and reach across the curriculum for inner-connected learning. Here is what people are saying about these units. “Wow!! This is an amazing interdisciplinary packet. The children thoroughly enjoyed all of the activities that we used. It was a great resource for me. It is so well organized.”
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Product Description
Bring the Zoo into your classroom with this Developmentally Appropriate "At The Zoo" Thematic Unit. This unit is strategically linked to the Common Core Standards, and many of the lessons are scripted for easy delivery.
This Zoo unit is a collection of engaging play-based activities that make learning fun and appropriate.
The unit is divided into areas of literature, music, art, literacy, math, worksheets, science, creative writing, word wall, and guided reading. The activities are clearly written, easy to use, and need limited amounts of preparation.
Table of Contents
Literacy Activities
Monkey Food: Decoding Words
Zoo Zap: Reading Sight Words
Around The Zoo: Reading Sentences
Cat Families: Using Word Families to Extend Reading Skills
Cat Family Writing: Word Family Writing
Boo At The Zoo: Writing oo Words
Math Activities
The Zoo Shop: Counting With One to One Correspondence
The Zebra Exhibit: Identifying Numbers
The Zoo Take Away: Subtracting Numbers Within Five
Hiss: Identifying Two and Three Dimensional Shapes
Zero Zebras: Comparing Numbers
Monkey Math: Subtraction Problems
The Zoo Keeper: Comparing Numbers
Math Journal Prompt Labels
Science
Animal Comparisons: Observing & Describing Characteristics
Monkey Bread: Combining Ingredients
Guided Reading Books
Going To The Zoo
Class Made Books
A Trip To The Zoo
Writing
Zoo Word Wall
The Animals at the Zoo
What Does a Zookeeper Do?
Art Projects
Paint a Zoo: Painting a Zoo Scene
Paper Bag Monkey: Making a Primate Friend
Crocodile: Constructing a Crocodile Pet
The Zoo: Portfolio Page
Songs/Fingerplays
Jumbo Elephant
Over at the Zoo
Way Down Yonder
Boa Constrictor
Sally The Camel
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Product Description
These great activities can be set up in your permanent writing, phonics, word-work, or literacy centers by any name. They can also simply be used as stand-alone worksheets and activities.
Contents:
Can Have Are Labels and Worksheets
Write a Story Task Card
Write a Story Worksheets
Label-It Task Card
Label-It Student Worksheets
Make a List Task Card
Make a List Student Worksheet
Make a List Word Wall
Write The Room Task Card- Sight Words
Write the Room Word Cards
Write the Room Task Card- Alphabet
Write the Room Word Cards
Write the Room Worksheets
Backwards Words Task Card
Backwards Words Worksheets
Backwards Word Word Cards
QR Words/Letters Task Card
QR Words/Letters Worksheets
QR Sight Words
QR Alphabet Letters
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Also available at Teachers Pay Teachers!
Product Description
Thematic Unit to bring Jungle Activities Into Your Classroom!
This Cross-Curricular Developmentally Appropriate Thematic Unit, "It's a Jungle in Here," will fill your classroom with fun-filled academic learning. This unit is strategically linked to the Common Core Standards, and many of the lessons are scripted for easy delivery.
This Jungle Unit is divided into areas of literature, music, art, literacy, math, worksheets, science, creative writing, vocabulary word wall, and guided reading. The activities are clearly written, easy to use, and need limited amounts of preparation.
The game-based activities will thrill your classroom or homeschool students as they learn academic skills in a jungle setting.
Table of Contents:
Songs/Fingerplays
The Elephant
Jungle Lane
The Lion
Art Projects
King of the Jungle
Elephant Construct
Zebra Painting
Jungle Masks
Writing
Word Wall
Writing Prompts: Jungle Animals & What I Know About the Rainforest
Writing Center Activities: I Can, How To, Label It, Write It, My List
Science
Safari & Other Animal Facts
Literacy Games
Snap: Matching Upper and Lowercase Letters
Rumble Through The Jungle: Reading Sight Words & Recording Data
Safari Sights: Naming Sight Words
Safari Sights: Alphabet Letter Fluency
Safari Stop: Identifying End Punctuation Marks
Independent Literacy Activities
Word Match
Write the Room Rainforest: Writing CVC Words
Math Games
Gorilla Dance: Naming Numerals 0-40
Safari Subtraction: Solving Story Problems
Safari Rest Camp: Subtraction
Dueling Dominos: Comparing Sums While Fluently Adding within 5
Independent Activities
Safari Take-Away
Math Journal Stickers: Zebras at The Pond
Sneaky Snakes: Writing Plus 1 Numbers
Guided Reading Books
The Rainforest
Class Made Books
A Trip to The Jungle
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Also available at Teachers Pay Teachers!
Save $ by buying the complete Bundle of adorable animal zoo phonics animals:
The sets includes color & black and white versions of both the animal bodies and heads. *Some letters have more than one option.
And don’t forget to top off your study of amazing animals by celebrating with my all time favorite Ms. Frizzle as she takes that bus to the rain forest. *Full episodes are generally found on Netflix and/or Amazon Prime.