Zoo, Where Are You? - Read. Learn. Explore Link up

Zoo, Where Are You? written by Ann McGovern

It is about a little boy named, Josh, who doesn't have a zoo near his town.  He decides he is going to make a zoo of his own.  He grabs a few essentials and heads out to look around his neighborhood for animals to create a zoo of his own.

As he searches for his zoo he imagines types of animals that he can find in specific locations.  When he actually arrives at the locations he doesn't find animals, but he does find other 'treasures'.  He brings the treasures home to share with his mom.  They discuss his, beautiful junk, and he sets out to find more.  

At the end of the story he comes to the conclusion that despite the fact that he wasn't able to find animals for his zoo, he created a different type of zoo.  He created a zoo full of junk.  Josh determined his zoo full of junk to be better  than any zoo with animals because he doesn't have to cage the zoo, feed or water it, or keep it happy.  He can just look at it and enjoy it.

This was one of my favorite books to read as a child.  As you can tell from the cover it has seen its better days.  My mom got it from a library sale when they were getting rid of old books.  I used to LOVE reading it over and over with her.  Reading it with my boy and recalling how much I enjoyed the book made our reading time even more special.

After reading the story B, G, Baby M, and I set out to make a zoo of our own!

First, we made Wild Animal Catching Bags

We used white paper sacks and foam stickers to decorate them.  G was very excited to do this project (he's 4) and put quite a few stickers on the bag.  B (he's 6), on the other hand, was content to simply write his name on the bag and call it a day.  He did write his first, middle, and last names, so at least he was working on his hand writing!

*You could also use markers, crayons, and glue small items onto the bags.  I offered these items to the boys, but they didn't want to use them.  I think they were ready to get outside.

Next, we grabbed our Wild Animal Catching Bags and set out on a walk (#2 on our activity list) in search of our Zoo

As we searched we sang, Zoo, Zoo, Where Are You Zoo, just as Josh did in the story.

Along our search we came to the pond first.  We found some geese.  B and G didn't think it would be a very good idea to put geese in the bags so we just stopped to look at them.

On the way back up the hill B found a pine cone to put in his bag.

As we continued G found some flowers that he really liked.  He was pretty bummed when I explained that he couldn't put the whole flower in the bag.  Luckily, my suggestion of a petal from the ground seemed to appease him!

I'm certain that the entire neighborhood heard the excitement in G's voice as he exclaimed "Look Mommy!  I found a wishing flower!"  If you couldn't tell, he LOVES flowers, especially dandelions, or dam lions, as he says.

After we finished collecting our things we headed home.  Once we got home we dumped out our collections of junk and shared them.

I'm not as cool as Josh's mom.  She let just dump his junk on the kitchen table.  I made my boys dump their junk on paper towel.  I have to be honest I wasn't really thrilled with having all of that on the table that we eat on.  Oh well, they loved it and that's what's important!

Last week we read and did activities with Pig Kahuna.  Check it out for more reading fun activities.

I'm linking up to Read.Explore.Learn today with Deirdre.

Read.Explore.Learn - Pig Kahuna

Today I am linking up with Deirdre from JDaniel 4's Mom.

The purpose of the link up is to share activity ideas centered around a book that you and your children have read.

B, G, and I (Baby M was sleeping so she wasn't able to participate) read the following book:

Pig Kahuna is written by Jennifer Sattler. 

It is a story about learning to overcome fears. 

The characters, Fergus and Dink, are brothers.

As the story begins Fergus and Dink are collecting treasures along the beach.  They find several items to add to their already diverse collection.  Readers quickly learn that Fergus is afraid to go into the ocean because of the unknown ickyness that lies within the blue and green waves.

Suddenly the ocean waves bring in a giant treasure for the brothers to add to their collection.  It's a surfboard!  Fergus leaves to get some ice cream for himself and Dink.  Dink thinks thinks the surfboard would like to return to the ocean.  Just as Fergus is returning with the ice cream he sees Dink tossing the surfboard  back into the ocean.  Without thinking Fergus runs to rescue their most prized treasure.   You'll have to read the book to find out what happens in the end!

Here B and G are attempting to pose like the characters on the front cover

I thought it was pretty cute that when the characters were introduced both B and G immediately associated them selves with one of the characters.  B was Fergus and G was Dink!

Before reading the story with B and G I hid some treasures (decorative rocks) in the sandbox.  I hid 20 to be exact.  I counted the number of objects so that we would know when all of the treasures had been uncovered.

After reading the story we discussed what the characters learned and why it was important to try new things, even if they are a bit scary.

Next, I explained to B and G that it was their turn to look for treasures along the beach like Fergus and Dink.  They took their buckets and shovels and began digging!

G and B digging for treasures

When all of the treasures were found we counted them and talked about how we could share them so that they would each have the same amount of treasures (squeezed in a little math to this reading activity).

B and G had really enjoyed reading this book and the activity we did along with it.  We completed #11 from our list of Summer Activities with this task.