We're Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo ......

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo

How about you, you, you
You can come too, too, too
We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo

Don't you just love that song? I do. It's a firm favourite.

Well, during the holidays, we went to the zoo, zoo, zoo - two zoos in fact. The good old Melbourne Zoo and our first trip out to Healesville Sanctuary, which was very delightful and well worth checking out.

In the days following, there were many discussions centred around animals and early one morning, Ed decided he'd like to make his own zoo using our plastic animals.

I helped to set up some enclosures.

We used some great wooden fences



Some old gift boxes



Some upside-down Frisbees



Even some rocks and a blue face washer



I went out into the garden to cut some foliage to make the enclosures seem a little more realistic (and so the animals had something to eat).



When it was finished, Ed drove his cars around the zoo and played out some "family" games with the animals.

Then big sister came along and decided she would like a zoo they could actually walk through. So we packed away the smaller animals and raided the soft toys to see what we could find.

We then set up a bigger zoo that spread through out the whole lounge room.

There was room for monkeys to swing



And pandas to roam



And bears in a cave



And a big pool for the penguins and turtles



I included toilets for the teddies



And a cafe (because no trip to the zoo is complete without a yummy snack), where a fresh morning tea was served after a morning of animal watching and holding.






The children made some signs and got out their cash register. They even made a map.



Then it was time to find some cameras and binoculars and take Hamley and Yarji to the zoo.



It was a great fun morning of play with lots of thinking, talking, remembering, drawing, imagining and learning going on.

And the best bit was, they didn't even have to get out of their pyjamas.

I'm playing along at