We made this toilet roll dog craft for Valentines Day but it could be easily adapted by not using the hearts. You can help your child to think of some adjectives to describe each animal. The elephant can be described as wrinkly, wise or enormous. He hopes parents will be able to use the book to talk to their very young children about the challenges that endangered species face. For example, they can discuss the simple message that if you don’t look after the wild animals you love, there will be fewer of them in the future. “And if you do, those animals will always be there.” These Dear Zoo story spoons from Crafts on Sea are super easy to make and perfect if you are working with a group

Simple clauses featuring nouns (zoo)and verbs (wrote, send) e.g.'I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet' As a class, discuss the story, then list and recordanimals in the story and identify theadjective used to describe each animal. Eg. Collect a range of animal figurines/ toys to match the animals in the book (Lion, Giraffe, Camel, Elephant, Monkey, Snake, Frog, Puppy). As you are reading the book you should introduce each animal toy as you come across them in the story. To support your child’s attention and listening skills, when you re-read the book you should give your child one of the animals and encourage them to hold up the animal when it appears in the book. However the Dear Zoo: Noisy book is well nigh perfect. It includes the fun element of flaps, teaches both the names of the animals and how to identify them. It invites questions such as: “How big is the crate?” and “What sort of animal might fit inside there?” It uses language with simple repetition, but also creatively. It has clear, attractive and humorous line drawings in bold colours. This wonderful lift-the-flap book Dear Zoo has been a favorite with toddlers and parents alike ever since it was first published. This colourful book excites young readers who love to lift the flaps and discover the animals the zoo has sent—a monkey, a lion, and even an elephant!

Follow us

But my daughter really loves this book. And my husband told me to lighten up, get off my high horse and "it's only a kids' book. Don't worry about it." So maybe the lift up flaps are great. And how lovely it would be to have a zoo keep sending you animals on demand. Yeah, ok, it's a fab book. He deliberately ends the book with an uplifting message: a huge, final flap, which reveals that, because “kind people” have looked after the whale, it is thriving in the sea. He decided the best way was to write a picture book from the perspective of someone who tries to find their favourite animals, and then discovers there aren’t many of them left. Like in Dear Zoo, which has sold over eight million copies worldwide and is a perennial top-10 picture book in the UK, an animal hides behind each flap of the book and is only revealed when the flap is opened. This zoo small world from Teaching 2 and 3 year olds was originally designed for the book Tuff Spots but I think it works really well as a Dear Zoo activity for kids too. The text is simple, direct and rythmical with a lot of repetition, making it ideal for Early Readers. A repetitive pattern iseasily recognised by junior primary children and repeated throughout the text.

Dear Zoo” was written as a lift-the-flap board book in 1982, by the Scottish author, Rod Campbell. It is his most famous work, and thirty-five years later, it is still tremendously popular among the under fives in Great Britain, and has been translated into more than a dozen different languages. Another idea for younger children in to model the symbolic noise associated with each animal in the book. As you come across the animals in the book, you should make the associated noise. Place no pressure on your child to copy these noises, but praise him/her if he/she does. After reading the book you can engage in pretend play with your child acting out the animals’ noises and movements. This is a lovely way to develop their pretend play skills.We made this elephant suncatcher as an Elmer craft but by using grey colours instead of (lots!) of colours for Elmer it would work well as a Dear Zoo craft.

Make this elephant craft using newspaper from Buggy and Buddy or this paper bag elephant from Crafts on Sea First, decide on the pattern you’d like to make for your snake. We chose three colors, but you could choose however many you’d like! This is a great opportunity to practice making patterns. Add the nose and mouth on the Nilla wafer with your edible marker and voila! You’re done! They’re almost too cute to eat! Fantastic Fun and Learning has an edible small world zoo that might just be my favourite activity because marshmallows. We’ve always been a big fan of Tuff Spots and this would be great for that! If you have a copy of Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell you can read it and play with this craft at the same time.Regardless. Is it a bit hypocritical of me to be endorsing this book, based on my ethical beliefs that animals are not toys to be swapped, sold on, imprisoned or treated as inanimate objects, blah, blah, blah. Am I delivering a dark, subconscious message of irresponsibility to my child when I read her this? If you love reading zoo animal books with your kids then these are some more we think you might enjoy!