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Issue: 882 Date: 7/19/2007
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KIDS CAN INVESTIGATE, CREATE, PRETEND AND PLAY
AT ST. LOUIS ZOO'S NEW ZOOMAGINATION STATION
New play area is designed for young children and their caregivers
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The St. Louis Zoo's new discovery room, ZOOmagination Station, invites young children and their adult caregivers to explore the animal world together. Families and groups can investigate animal biofacts up close, design their own zoo exhibits and create creature crafts to take home. Puppets, costumes, discovery boxes, a playhouse and a variety of play areas encourage children to investigate the world of animals - and to have fun! Located in classrooms in The Living World, the experience is designed for children ages 3-7, though all ages are welcome.
Children can choose their own brand of fun at these stations:
At Backyard Wildlife Experience, kids can explore an interactive playhouse and its habitat. Children use binoculars, magnifiers and field guides to identify native wildlife. Animal clues help identify scat, bird songs and more. Kids can fill birdfeeders, care for native plants and find out how to attract wildlife to their own backyard.
At Animal Care Corner, kids investigate the jobs of zookeepers and veterinarians with costumes, pretend Zoo animals and tools of the trade. They discover how zookeepers care for the animals as they sift scat, squeegee aquariums and hook snakes. They can also examine X-rays, bandage bears and listen to the heart of a hippo, just like a real veterinarian.
At Animal Explorations, kids create an underwater adventure with amazing ocean animal models in the water sensory table. They can build a polar paradise in moon sand for a whole colony of penguins. They'll decorate a "toad abode" to take home, so they can begin attracting wildlife to their own backyard. They will learn how animals communicate by listening to real animal calls and matching them to pictures.
At Build-A-Habitat, kids can create their own animal habitat with realistic animal replicas and natural elements. Plants, logs, caves, fences, waterways and more are there to build wild animal habitats or design zoo homes.
At ZOOmagination Theater, kids can create wacky wildlife adventures with a diverse cast of animal puppets, or tell a story with the forest finger puppets in their giant tree stump homes.
With Discovery Boxes, kids investigate amazing animal adaptations in simple hands-on experiments. Children and their caregivers can compare feathers, tell a story with animal tracks, and learn how apes go fishing for termites. There's much to explore with more than 15 different activity kits.
Cubs & Pups Pad is just for the wee ones! Ages 2 and under can play with puppets, plush animals and giant pillows on a soft turtle mat. Their caregivers help them explore the animal world through books and manipulatives which simulate how animals, move, act and sound.
Tickets to ZOOmagination Station are $2.00 per person for a 45-minute session. Children under 2 are free. One adult is required for every three children. Tickets are available at the Guest Services desk in The Living World. Groups of 15 or more may purchase tickets for $1.50 per person.
Dates and times for ZOOmagination Station vary from day to day. Check the St. Louis Zoo's website at www.stlzoo.org or call (314) 768-5408 for information. |
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