Animal Tracks

Once a month, our local zoo offers

zoo classes for home schooled kids.

The Big K. and Doodles

look forward to these classes

every month.

This month, Big K. has been counting

down the days until January's class.

Why? Because it was

going to be outdoors, there would

be snow shoeing,

and we were learning

about animal tracks.

Brianne is the kids' teacher.

Her love for animals and children shines

through every month.

She takes the time to talk with the kids,

allows them to ask all sorts of questions, no

matter how silly, and really

listens to what they have to say.

The activities are always fun and well planned.

This month, to emphasize animal tracks,

Brianne painted the feet of several different

animals. She then had the animals walk

on paper to show the types of tracks

they make.

She brought out Mr. B., the parrot,

and showed how his feet are made to

hold onto tree branches.

She then showed us all sorts of tricks that

he's learned. She explained to the kids

why it's so important for parrots to remain in the wild.

The kids played a game using pictures

of animals and their tracks. They had

to match the right animal to the right

track.

Brianne then took the kids outside for a walk in the snow.

She handed out little cards with all different types

of tracks that might be seen.

The kids had the zoo to themselves.

They raced through the trails finding

lots of squirrel tracks

and some deer tracks.

After our track hunt, it

was back to the classroom. The kids made their own animal

track books to bring home.

Big K. and Doodles had so much fun.

They always learn so much during the time at the zoo.

They're already counting down the days until

next month's class.