Submitted by Gretchen, Missouri
Idea posted November 9, 2004
I used the ZooPal plates and did fun things with them with my second graders. (Even my usually horrendous class was superb.) Here's a short recap of what we did:
- I lined them up: parrot, alligator, elephant, and moose.
- I asked volunteers to name the animals.
- We all said the animals together.
- I had them sit at their desks (I'm in the classrooms) and tap their foot for every plate. I demonstrated, and then they did it.
- Then I turned the elephant around and had them say all four again.
- I continued turning each plate around, with them saying all four animals and tapping their feet.
- Then I switched the parrot and elephant while they were turned around.
- I had them say the NEW version, and probably 95% got it absolutely right!
- I switched a few others, and they got it right again!
I tried this with my kindergartners, and they got it too! I was so impressed. I had them pat their laps instead of tapping feet since we were seated on the floor; got their left to right reading thing going on and everything.
Somewhere in the activity after we said the names, we clapped each sound/syllable so it was rhythms. I think with the second graders I clapped a beat and asked if it was a parrot, an elephant, a moose, or an alligator. They pretty much could decipher the animal from the number of claps.
I'm so excited they got this much and, really, it only took 15 minutes or so.