Design Your Own Zoo

Children will learn about map skills and different animals as they design their own zoo. Students do not need any background knowledge for this course, but having some knowledge of animals and mapmaking skills is helpful. 

***PLEASE READ:  Due to varying number of students/amounts that they want to talk/if they want to share or not our class times may differ. Also, it is my management policy to have students muted unless they are talking so that there is not any background noise so that students can hear myself and each other. Also, this class focuses on students using their creativity...I will NOT tell students where they should put different things in their zoos, I will show them examples to give them ideas. :) I will post recordings upon request. Due to my already scheduled teaching commitments, I am not able to add any more sections to my schedule at this time.***

During the first session students will:
-Look at different maps of zoos to learn about different zoo designs
-Come up with a name for their zoo  (I will provide a planner for students to print out to use)
-Draw an outline of their zoo with any walkways, or train tracks (optional)
-Plan the different areas that they want to have in their zoo and start to think about the different animals that they might want to have in their zoo (***As I believe that creativity is very important, I will not direct students as to where they should place everything in their zoos***)
***It is important that students have a large piece of paper or poster board, pencil, eraser, and the classroom printables which I will post in the classroom the day before to get the most out of this session.***

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A HOMEWORK INTENSIVE CLASS IN ORDER FOR STUDENTS TO GET THE MOST OUT OF IT:)
Homework between sessions:
-Research different animals that could live in different areas in their zoo and find or draw pictures of them
-Finish designing their zoos on their boards
-Choose one animal to research, and research it to share with the class 

During the second session students will:
-Share their boards and share information about the animal that they chose to research to learn more about
-Any extra time will be used to take a virtual zoo field trip

By the end of the second session, students should have a zoo that they are proud of, and animal research to share! Please note, that due to the nature of the class and the varying amount of students attending, instructional time per class may be a few minutes under or over 30 minutes. The second session is very time reliant on the willingness of students to share both their boards and their animal research.

***Please note: I will not be able to honor requests for transfers, refunds or withdrawals within 48 hours of class start time or after class has started (unless there is an extreme emergency with a limit of 1 per family per year). I invite you to watch the class recording (which I will post if asked) at your earliest convenience.***