EYFS: Listen and Play - Pretty parrots and mischievous meerkats

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Songs and stories about a trip to the wildlife park.

Pretty parrots and mischievous meerkats

Introduction
• Key vocabulary: zoo, monkeys, camels, wolves, snakes, meerkats, parrots, kangaroos
• Listen all around: Cat invites the listeners to guess the sounds and the location
• Individual sounds: monkeys chattering, camel braying, wolves howling, snakes hissing, parrots cawing

Song: ‘I went to visit the zoo today’
I went to visit the zoo today
I met a parrot upon the way
And what do you think I heard him say?
CAW! CAW! CAW!

With the repeat, Cat invites the children to open and close their hands like the parrot’s beak

I went to visit the zoo today
I met a meerkat upon the way
And what do you think I heard her say?
PEEP! PEEP! PEEP!

With the repeat, Cat invites the children to sit up straight like a meerkat with hands (‘paws’) together, looking all around

I went to visit the zoo today
I met a snake upon the way
And what do you think I heard him say?
HISS! HISS! HISS!

Cat invites the children to their hands and arms to curl and twist as they hiss

I went to visit the zoo today
I met a monkey upon the way
What do you think I heard her say?
CHATTER! CHATTER! CHATTER!

• Cat invites the children to stretch their arms above their head and swing like a monkey
• Cat encourages the children to make up more verses to the song and to think of some animals they might see and the sounds they make
• Cat introduces the story about Kai and Lindsey who are visiting a zoo with their mum

Story time:Once upon a Wildlife time… If possible provide a selection of resources to help engage the children and focus attention: a map, tickets, monkey, parrots, kangaroo, snake, fish, meerkat. Children can use these items to se- quence the story on subsequent retelling.

Final song - repeat ‘I went to visit the zoo one day’

Follow-up ideas

• Small group discussion: Have you been to the zoo or wildlife park? What did you see / hear?
• Encourage the children’s word play and invent new verses for ‘I went to visit the zoo one day’ - eg ‘hilarious hyenas - Ha,ha,ha’

The Kangaroo

Jump, jump, jump
Goes the big kangaroo
I thought there was one
But I see there are two.
The mother takes her young one
Along in a pouch
Where it can nap like a child
On a couch.
Jump, jump, jump, jump.

Other related rhymes and songs
• Daddy’s taking me to the zoo tomorrow
• We’re going to the zoo
• We went to the animal fair

More follow-up ideas
• Explore collective nouns:
• a ‘mob’ of meerkats
• a ‘barrel’ of monkeys
• a ‘pandemonium’ of parrots
• a ‘chatter’ of budgerigars
• a ‘flutter’ of butterflies
• a ‘caravan’ of camels
• a ‘quiver’ of cobras
• a ‘rhumba’ of rattlesnakes
• a ‘tower’ of giraffes
• a ‘horde’ of hamsters
• a ‘cackle’ of hyenas
• a ‘pack’ of wolves

Play animal ‘word tag’
• The monkeys are…cheeky, chattering, cheerful
• The Meerkats are…nosey, noisy, nice, nimble, etc
• Possibly encouraging alliteration linked to Aspect 5 Phase 1 phonics to support Letters and sounds

Matching / naming game
• Kangaroos / joeys
• Parrots / chicks
• Meerkats / pups
• Fish / fry

Make a wildlife / zoo role play
• Create a small world scene to help retell the story
• Provide a selection of information books about wild animals
• Make some animal masks to help retell or act out the story and rhymes
• Provide pictures of the story sequence for children to order, they could be pegged on to a story string’ in the order they appear in the story.

Small group discussion
• What was the girl in the story called? (Lindsey)
• What was the boy in the story called? (Kai)
• Where did they go?
• What animals did they see?
• What was your favourite part of the story? Why?
• Introduce simple ideas about conservation and animal welfare
• Looking after animals, what are their needs? (Food, water, bed, exercise, care)
• Why do we need to take care of our animals / planet?
• Ask open questions to encourage the children to give more information: what? why? where? who?

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