Zoo | Blue Bird Day
Blue Bird Day
  • About Us
    • Our Team
      • Our West Loop Team
      • Our Northcenter Team
      • Our Wheaton Team
      • Our Admin Team
    • Our Facilities
      • West Loop and Northcenter
      • NEW LOCATION: WHEATON
    • Careers
    • Diversity Statement
    • From Our Executive Director
  • Our Approach
  • Our Services
    • Pediatric Therapies
      • Neuropsychology
      • ABA Therapy
      • Developmental Therapy
      • Feeding Therapy
      • Nutrition Therapy
      • Occupational Therapy
      • Physical Therapy
      • Social Work
      • Speech Therapy
    • Therapeutic Programs
      • Therapeutic Preschool Program
      • Therapeutic Kindergarten Program
      • Therapeutic Extended Day
      • Therapy Case Managers
    • Virtual Therapy
  • Blog
  • Learn More
    • Blue Bird Day Calendar
    • Our Events
    • Our FAQs
    • Our Resources
    • Our Testimonials
    • Client Case Studies
    • Birdie’s Advice Column
    • Our COVID-19 Precautions
    • Community Partners and Resources
  • Contact Us
  • Menu
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

Table Time

Activity: Animal Shadow Matching

Materials:

Jungle Animal Shadow Cards PDF Download

Blue Bird Day Parent Resources Bingo

Skill Check 

This activity uses a child’s spatial skills, object recognition, and visual discrimination abilities.

Growing My Skills

Print out template

Cut out animals

Match to coordinating animal shadow on the worksheet.

Floortime Play

Activity: What Zoo Animal Are You?

Materials:

Face paint or animal masks

Animal ears

Medium size box (for cage) or cushions (for a “stage”)

Blue Bird Day and boy at zoo

Skill Check 

The goal of this activity is to spend time together in a playful, imaginative way. There should be limited structure and a lot of pretending.

Growing My Skills

Use available materials to assist the child in creating an animal character

Use a photo reference if needed

Paint ears or whiskers on your child (ask them if it feels okay first!), put on animal ears, or wear a mask

Cut a hole out of a medium-size box and have the child sit in the “cage,” as if they were in the zoo. Ask them what does a tiger (hippo, etc) act like?

Extend the play by “feeding” your animal within their cage

Relaxation Time

Activity: Never Ever Shout At the Zoo

Materials:

Never Ever Shout in a Zoo Read Aloud Youtube Video

Blue Bird Day and kid reading

Skill Check 

The goal of this activity is to slow down and engage quiet time and listening skills during read-aloud activity.

Growing My Skills

Can your child point out the theme of the book or label a favorite part?

Is your child familiar with the character within this video; if not ask if he/she can see his favorite character doing these activities.

Creative Time

Activity: Circus Animal Cage Project

Materials:

Shoebox

String or ribbon

Paint or markers

Plastic animals

Colored felt or nature pictures (to add to background)

Glue

The Pa-Paw Patch Homeplay Idea Zoo Animal Cage

Blue Bird Day and paint

Skill Check 

Let your child’s imagination soar with his favorite zoo animal. Build a “zoo home” that your child’s favorite animal would love. Does it have food and a lot of trees, or match it fur? There is no wrong answer!

Growing My Skills

Gather your materials

Poke holes into the shoeboxes.

Using coloring materials, let your kids decorate the boxes however they’d like

Attach and tie strings

Add animals

Movement Time

Activity: Animal Walks

Materials:

Animal Walk Ideas 

Skill Check 

The goal of this week is to use your body to walk like animals at the zoo!

Growing My Skills

Reference visual for animal walk directions

Your child may benefit from watching you do it first

Have fast races or see “who can go the slowest” to really work on motor discrimination and motor planning

Show your child how many trials they need to complete by transferring toys from one end of the hallway to the other, or transfer puzzle pieces to the puzzle board on the other side of the room

Be silly and creative – making up walks for all your favorite animals

Mealtime

Activity: Eat Like Your Favorite Animal

Materials:

Ingredients: 1/4 – 1 serving of your animal’s favorite food

For example: monkey = banana, parrots= sunflower seeds, giraffe = leafy greens, Penguin = fish (you can use gummy fish if needed), Rhino = fruit & berries. Rabbit = carrots. Guinnea pig = leafy greens

Skill Check 

The goal of this activity is to try new or nonpreferred foods in a playful manner like animals in a zoo!

Growing My Skills

Wash and prepare foods your child wishes to consume

Have an “all done” bowl or garbage can nearby for easy disposal

Spend time eating and acting like the animal. This doesn’t have to be a sit-down activity

You can get messy, you can sniff, lick, bite, chew, and spit out the food!

Anything to pretend to play like an animal and try new foods

Language Time

Activity: Pretend Trip to the Zoo

Materials:

Put Me In the Zoo by Robert Lopshire Youtube Read Aloud

The View at the Zoo by Kathleen Long Bostrom “Let’s Go to the Zoo” Youtube Read Aloud

Skill Check 

The goal of this week is to provide an opportunity for your child to increase use, expand, and improve understanding of language through play.

Expanding Skills

Read Up, Up, Up with your child (Depending on your child’s language skills, you can read the words from the page or use your own words to provide a simple description of the pages)

Describe how the people and city look different the higher up the balloon goes in the book

Allow for your child to also make comments on the pictures

Create your own city with legos, working together to build the towers

This activity allows for language skill targets like turn-taking, requesting, following directions

Work together to build one tower or build your own and use describing language to talk about yours to model language for your child

WEST LOOP LOCATION

1233 W Adams St, Chicago, IL 60607

WHEATON LOCATION – Now Open!

140 E Loop Rd, Wheaton, IL 60189

NORTHCENTER LOCATION

1921 W Irving Park Rd, Chicago, IL 60613

CONTACT INFORMATION

(312) 243-8487

info@bbdprogram.com

© Copyright - Blue Bird Day LLC
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Home
  • Privacy
  • Terms
Call Now ButtonClick to Call Now Scroll to top