No!!
What do you think?
Jill and
Anya,
friends
I think zoos
should be
closed. It is cruel
to keep animals
in captivity.
!
Yes!
I think that zoos that
help animals who
have been injured
badly, have had their
habitat destroyed or
don't have enough
food, should stay
open.
Cheetah
Gorilla
Amur tiger
Greater one-horned
rhinoceros
Pigmy hippo
Bactrian camel
Conservation is one of the reasons why we have zoos.
They help protect and breed endangered animals…
Okapi
Black-footed
penguin
Most of us would never get to see wild animals if there
weren’t any zoos. We can learn a lot about the wildlife
of the world at a good zoo.
in
Pengu
g
feedin
times:
m
10:30 a
1:15 pm
4:45 pm
Wild
animals
should be
out there
roaming
freely, not
stuck all
crammed
up in zoos.
It’s in the News!
Teacher’s guide
Towards the end of 2010 there was a three-part documentary
about London Zoo and the efforts they are making in the
conservation of endangered species, particularly gorillas. They
have become endangered through such things as their habitats
being destroyed, or poaching - mostly things we humans are
doing to them. Zoos remain a contentious issue: imprisoning
wild animals who should be free, or helping their future through
protection and breeding programmes? This series was
repeated earlier this year. You might like to show some clips
from the programme to your class.
… continued on the next slide
… continued
In these slides there are links to geography as we provide
ideas for exploring the different countries where the animals
come from and also some links to science. They give
opportunities for work on a variety of mathematical concepts
including number, data handling, measurement, position and
direction.
Before you use the slides you might find it helpful to look at
the following websites for further information:
ITV.com
Wikipedia
List of zoos worldwide
… continued on the next slide
… continued
Born Free Foundation zoo check
ZSL
PETA UK
The eight-lesson pack Citizenship: Animals and Us contains
eight lesson plans for key stages 1 and 2, examining how
animals’ lives interact with our own. The lesson plans focus on
issues including the role of zoos, companion animal care and
elephants in captivity: petaf.org.uk
1st spread: Zoos – Do we need them?
● Ask the children if they have ever visited a zoo. You could use this as an opportunity to
practice single criteria Venn and Carroll diagrams: been to a zoo/not been to a zoo.
● You could talk about favourite zoo animals, make a tally and frequency table and then
represent this as a pictogram, bar or line chart.
● You could look at the list of zoos in the link provided and identify the ones in the UK, plot
some of the most familiar of these or the ones closest to your school on a map and work
out the distance from school to each one. How long would it take to travel there and
back to one? How long would it take and what distances would you cover to visit them
all? You could of course explore further and work out how much it would cost in petrol at
current prices.
● You could ask the children to plan a visit to one – maybe a school trip. They should
explore routes, possible modes of transport, distances and work out how long it would
take to get there. They could plan and make a timetable for the day beginning with time
leaving school, time arriving at zoo, lunch, leaving for return to school, arrival back at
school and include other things they might want to do while they are there. They could
find out the entry price, cost of a coach (divided between everyone going), budget for
food and souvenirs and find out how much it might cost each child for the trip. There
might be group or age discounts. They could explore how these would effect the total
price.
● Look at the comments of the children and discuss the pros and cons of zoos. You could
ask the children to make up a questionnaire to help them decide why we should have
zoos and what they should look or why we shouldn’t and then collate responses and
display in some form of chart, table, diagram or graph. They could make a presentation
to the rest of the class. Plenty has been said about zoos and information is freely
available to search for on the internet, so they could use this information and the view
points shared to make up their questionnaire.
…continued on the next slide
1st spread: Zoos – Do we need them? continued…
● You could focus on the animals on the slide and use the numbers of penguins drawn to
practise simple addition and subtraction, number pairs to ten, one more/less, and
estimation.
● The children could draw their own penguin number line to practise counting, or snap cards
to practise number pairs or simple addition.
● You could ask the children to find out some information about giraffes e.g. their height and
weight, their life span, the number of young they produce, where they live in the wild, what
they eat. If possible find giraffe body ratios and use these to draw scaled down pictures or
make models. If they can’t find any body ratios they could measure the limbs with rulers or
string and estimate ratios of leg to length of neck, body from base of neck to back legs and
work out what the scaled down size would be.
● You could repeat this for the lion and gorilla. This would be good for comparing weights of
babies and adults. This could involve practical estimating and weighing too. How do the
babies compare with average weights of human babies?
● For penguins, you could ask the children to find out how many breeds there are in the
world and to make fact-files for these. They could make up 'trumps cards' giving different
attributes and breeds different values. They could use them to play 'trumps' as a game of
strategy and also as a way of practising mental calculation strategies for addition and
subtraction.
● You could ask them to find the heights of the grown male penguins of each breed and to
compare them using counting on strategies - good link to number lines and measures.
They could then make scaled down drawings, which will include division, to compare their
heights and show the differences visually.
…continued on the next slide
1st spread: Zoos – Do we need them? continued…
● You could ask the children to make a zoo in an empty sand tray, with areas of water for
penguins and other animals that need it, and areas of sand or earth for other animals.
They could write instructions saying the amount of water used and quantities of sand and
earth. They could make these measurements in cups or specific amounts using standard
units. They could fill it with toy animals and use these for some counting activities.
● You could ask the children to find the average numbers of different animals at one
particular zoo and use these facts to compare and find differences by counting on. You
could also use this as an opportunity for work on fractions and percentages, drawing pie
charts and bar graphs etc. There could be an opportunity for word problem solving e.g.
there were 120 penguins at the local zoo, 5% were Emperor penguins, how many weren't?
5/8 of the 640 animals at the zoo were mammals, how many weren't?
● Estimate and then find out the amount and type of food needed to feed all the animals
every day. What is the total weight and cost? Calculate the total weight of animals in the
zoo and their total height. Other questions to investigate could be how many legs in the
zoo? How many wings? How many claws?
2nd spread: Animal conservation
● The London Zoo programme on the television featured various animals that were
undergoing conservation programmes. These included:
● Cheetahs from Tanzania
● Gorillas from the Congo, Gabon, Uganda
● Amur tigers from Russia
● Bactrian camels from Southern Mongolia and China
● Greater one-horned rhinoceros from Nepal, Bhutan and India
● Pigmy hippos from West Africa: Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea
● Black footed penguins from Antarctica
● Okapi from the Congo
● Ask the children to locate these countries on the map of the world. Ask questions such
as: what is its capital city, what ocean or sea is at its coast, what countries are next to it,
what continent is it in. You could work out the distances from each capital to London or a
city near you using string or rulers and convert using the scale on the map.
● For each animal ask the children to research them in detail and make a fact file to
include weight and height when fully grown, average life span, average number of
young, where they live, what and how much they eat, what they drink.
● Whenever focussing on weight or height compare to items commonly found in the
classroom. If the children are happy to be measured, compare with them.
…continued on the next slide
2nd spread: Animal conservation continued…
● Explore the countries that the animals are found in and compare rainfall, temperature,
hours of sunshine to the UK. You could explore the type of terrain and landscape e.g.
rain forest, polar region, desert, mountain. What special arrangements might zoos need
to make to give the animals a suitable environment? This could involve creating bar, bar
line or line graphs and charts.
● The children could pretend to be an animal conservationist and plan a trip to one of
these countries to visit one of the animals. They would need to consider the climate so
they know the type of clothes they would need. They would need to consider their
journey in terms of cost and time and also accommodation, currency etc. Ask them to
find out approximately how much their trip would cost. They could do this as a
presentation for the rest of the class.
3rd spread: Education
● Discuss the benefits of zoos in terms of places where people can see real wild life when
without them they would only probably get to see them on the television or in films.
Discuss the idea of them being crammed into small spaces, when their natural habitat
allows them to roam freely.
● Have a look at the map of a zoo. You could use this to recap simple coordinates and ask
the children to locate various items on it.
● If possible give them a paper copy and to work with a partner. They could plan a route
around the zoo, seeing what animals they can visit without retracing their steps. They
could plot the coordinates of the various animals that they would see on their route.
● Ask them to find the coordinates for the cafe. You could use this as an opportunity for
them to consider what might be sold in one and to make up a cafe menu, with an
appropriate title and to cost the items they wish to sell. They could work in groups
making orders and working out the costs. Some of them could offer percentage
discounts, so adding in another element of mathematics.
● They could have opening and closing times and work out how long their cafe will be
available for selling food and drink.
● You could repeat this idea for the zoo shop with all its souvenirs. the children could look
online and find out the sort of souvenirs sold.
● Look at the feeding time poster and use this as an opportunity to work on time. They
could plan other feeding times for other animals which are at times when the children
could see all the feeding that goes on.
● They could make up their own map with their choices of animals. This could be on a
simple coordinate map or if the children are able to they could create one that uses four
quadrants.
…continued on the next slide
3rd spread: Education continued…
● The ideas for mathematics within the zoo theme are numerous. These are just a few. If
you have any more that you have tried out successfully please let us know.
● Further ideas in Primary Magazine Issue 26 We're going to the zoo...how about you?
● You might find some past It’s in the News!/Up2d8 maths presentations helpful, for
example Issue 28 Orang-utans; Issue 21 Terrapins; Issue 16 Pandas.