Learning at Home | MiniZoo Blog

As Australian schools transition back into physical classrooms, I've been reflecting on different ways to mix education and play at home on a more regular basis and MiniZoo figures are often my inspiration. 

Fun fact: I’m a teacher, so I know exactly what it’s like to have to teach students day after day and deliver content in new and exciting ways. Many young students (including my own) have been navigating online learning and completing worksheets and booklets carefully created and compiled by their superstar teachers while we all live in an unusual and ever-changing educational environment. While I have no doubt in the quality of work provided by these teachers (because I can guarantee they’re working their hardest in unchartered territories), I can imagine how tricky it can be to facilitate learning at home for your own kids. It might have become challenging when they realised that their toys were just sitting over in the corner, or the TV is beckoning, or they’re begging for all day recess, because being at home is a completely different environment than their classroom at school, and something they would or would not have done for their teacher, they might or might not do for Mum or Dad.

I’m passionate about many things, two of which are providing quality education for children of all ages, and using animals and nature to foster an excitement in the world around us. So, here at MiniZoo we’ve combined these intentions to help encourage a more permanent combination of learning and play, building on the skills they've been developing over the past few weeks.

I have created a range of educational activities and research projects for several different age groups, all of which are in line with Australian Curriculum standards at varying levels. Tahnaya (our social media manager) and I have made a few different free downloadable worksheet resources that your kids can follow and complete for those who are interested.

Some of these activities may require several MiniZoo animals, so check what figures you’ve got first, and choose your activities accordingly - or alternatively, it might be time to place an order and get a couple more (justified online shopping because it’s for educational purposes - right?!).

Feel free to print and laminate any or all worksheets to reuse and let your little ones try again tomorrow, or next week, or next month, and see their progress!

Preschool-Kinder:

  • Reading: Choose a book that they will enjoy - a bedtime book works perfectly. Using MiniZoo animals to assist, locate the illustrations of the animals on the pages as you read together. Have your little one imitate the animals’ actions with the figures as the story progresses. The example we’ve used is Zachary Quack Minimonster by Lynley Dodd because my daughter loves any books in the Hairy Maclary series - the rhyming is what makes it fun for her I think. The Safari Incredible Creatures Duckling makes the perfect Zachary Quack and the CollectA Golden Ringed Dragonfly can ‘FLICK FLICK FLICK’ around him sparking the chase outlined in the story. You can also get your kids even more involved by choosing a page and have them attempt to recreate the entire scene. 
  • Literacy: Download our alphabet and sounds sheets. Tracing letters is a handy activity, particularly when building word associations. Finding an animal that begins with that letter is also great. Consider varying difficulty e.g. teaching your little ones the differences between ‘k’ and ‘c’ and the ways that some letters can change their sounds depending on the word, like ‘p’ when it makes a ‘ph’ sound.
  • Numeracy: Counting animals is great way to build numeracy skills. You’ll need to write down a bunch of numbers on a page, or a couple of pages if you intend to use larger numbers for older children. Depending on the level of challenge you’d like to set, you can begin with simple 1-10 numbers, grouping animals together in numbers that match the one written down. For an extra level of challenge, you could write the full word for the number out e.g. ‘four’ as opposed to ‘4’. You’ll need to make a judgement on what level your little one is at. For older kids, use larger numbers - you’re only limited by your amount of MiniZoo figures.
    We also have a free printable counting sheet that doesn't require physical figures. Find it here.
  • Science: The beginning stages of learning about science and nature requires our little ones to build their understanding around grouping ‘like’ animals. Download and print the activity cards and ask your kids to have a go and placing their MiniZoo animals in the categories. E.g. which animals have 4 legs? Which animals have wings? Which ones are brown, and which are green? They can also be grouped by habitat, such as farm, sea, lake, forest, Australia etc.
  • Exercise: Print the cards I’ve included here to imitate the animals, e.g. hopping like a kangaroo, slither like a snake, jumping like a frog etc. Having the figures handy is also fun as your little ones can help them to see how the animal stands (e.g. is it on 2 legs, or 4 legs, or no legs!?)
  • Art: Make your own animal out of play dough using your favourite MiniZoo figure for inspiration. They could even make a bunch – again, you’re only limited by the number of figures you have and the amount of play dough you have access too (though making your own play dough is also a fun activity to do with little ones as well). Here’s an example I’ve made using the CollectA sow for inspiration. 
     

Lower Primary:

  • Literacy: Have your little ones write out the words for their MiniZoo animals (you’ll have to check their spelling and correct where necessary). You’ll also be the best judge to know what level they’re at e.g. Easy = cat dog frog, Medium = chicken whale monkey, Hard = elephant echidna hippopotamus etc. I haven’t included any downloadable cards for these as it will depend on which figures you have in your collection.

    We also a free printable sheet for filling in the blanks to spell some animal words. Find it here.
    Another activity to build on literacy skills is to have your little ones learn about superlatives (big, bigger, biggest). Use the downloadable cards to assist with this activity. Your kids can place their animals next to the superlatives in the correct order.

    Another literacy activity, which might provide a good challenge for creative kids, is to create an acrostic poem for their favourite animal using adjectives (describing words) that represent that animal. Doing some research and watching any of the live streaming zoos for inspiration might assist with finding good words to use. I've based my acrostic on the Papo Loggerhead Turtle.

  • Science: MiniZoo stocks a bunch of Safari Life Cycle sets which are super helpful to understand the transition that some animals go through as they develop and grow. Choose a set and use it to learn about the life cycle of that creature. This can then become a research project where your little one makes their own factoid cards on each stage in the life cycle. We've used the Life Cycle of a Monarch Butterfly Set for ours, but there's several to choose from. 
  • Exercise: Create an obstacle course where the different stages require the participant to imitate the actions of animals. Have your kids make signs with the name of the animal and the figure to match it, to give a hint of what the action should be to get past that stage e.g. a wombat hint might mean they must crawl to get under something. 
  • Art: Create a scene for a backdrop to suit your favourite animal’s habitat. For this activity, you will need: non-glossy cardboard, paints in required colours (and potentially mixing pots), paintbrush(es), and water. If you want to add texture, consider having some glue handy and the items you wish to use. Some good ideas are sand, leaves, pebbles etc. but just keep in mind, the heavier your artwork becomes from adding texture, the thicker the type of cardboard you may want to use, and if you intend to stand your backdrop/scene up, then you don’t want your corners to sag because they’re too heavy, so take this into consideration. For our scene, we’ve decided to use the Schleich Hen and the CollectA Chicks Hatching to create a farm scene. We glued a small amount of chicken pellets and seeds, as well as some meadow hay in the foreground and painted a chicken coop with watercolours. The Schleich Hen Coop and/or Rooster would also work perfectly with a backdrop like this. Don’t forget MiniZoo also has a range of beautiful wooden animal figures from Holztiger and Tenderleaf Toys if you’d rather use those for younger children. 

Upper Primary:

  • Literacy: Write a short story about some of your favourite MiniZoo animals. Have your kids choose an animal, or maybe a couple, for their main character(s) and give them a name and a personality e.g. Harry the Hedgehog who might get up to mischief. Consider basic narrative structure (orientation, complication, resolution), full sentences, and punctuation like capital letters and full stops. Then add illustrations. We’d love to hear your kids’ stories! Please, please, please share them with us on our MiniZoo VIP Facebook group. I’d LOVE to read them, and perhaps we can collect everyone’s stories together in a MiniZoo folder.
  • Science: This activity is grounded in building on the grouping ‘alike’ animal skills I mentioned in the Preschool-Kinder age bracket, so it might be perfect for siblings of different ages to do together. Kids can group their MiniZoo animal figures based on diet, or habitat, whether they’re endangered, and ‘family’ (such as all types of cats together, all types of monkeys together etc.). This will likely mean they should do some research, which are also good skills to practice. For a larger research project for passionate animal lovers, have your kids create a poster on their favourite animal family explaining how the members of the ‘family’ are different and similar e.g. house cat vs lion vs leopard.
  • History: MiniZoo has a range of historical figures that you and your child could use in your home classroom to learn about different time periods e.g. pirates, explorers, Romans etc. You’ll need a couple of MiniZoo historical figures from the same period and then you can have your little one’s research them and create a diorama and poster to explain what their lives might’ve been like. Have them consider where they lived, what they wore, what they did etc. You might find that you learn something yourself! 
  • Art: Find and follow a ‘How to Draw’ tutorial online, or perhaps even make your own drawing video! Now, I mentioned I'm a teachers, but I'm no artist, so my amateur example has nothing on an online video tutorial, but it might show your little ones that anyone can (and should) have a go. I used the Holztiger Cow and Rooster as my inspiration. For a little extension activity, see how they go making their own drawing video (you may need to help them with the filming side of things). 

While I can imagine how challenging this time has been, and potentially still is, for all families, and you may have felt exhausted at times, do try to enjoy watching your children learn, navigating the new world, using a combination of MiniZoo animals, nature, technology and good-old-fashioned fun.

Many countries, states and territories taking different paths when educating remotely, or transitioning back to face-to-face learning, but these activities are great for continuing to build upon the skills they’re learning in their classroom (physical or virtual) at home with their favourite MiniZoo figures.

I hope these lesson activities will help grow your child’s love of learning and animals throughout this challenging time. They can be used once life goes back to ‘normal’ to encourage kids who genuinely enjoy learning about animals in their free time (like weekends and after school). To those families who regularly home-school, hats off to you, and please feel free to use these if you need some fresh ideas.

If you’d like anything that’s a little less structured, Tahnaya has also developed a couple of other free downloadable sheets so help yourself here :) 

If you've used MiniZoo figures in your homeschooling exercises, please share them with us on social media by tagging us on Instagram, or Facebook, or even better, join our MiniZoo VIP group on Facebook to share more ideas with other passionate families. I also encourage you to share your child’s progress with their teacher, because they’ll be so excited to see how they mix education and playtime using different techniques.

I hope your Learning at Home activities have been enjoyable, whether it’s due to government mandated isolation, or just in the interest of encouraging educational play at home. Even when all the Coronavirus craziness calms down, you’ll have a bunch of activities to do with your kids to further encourage their love of learning and of the world around them.

Jenna @ MiniZoo