The Zoo In My Living Room

Yesterday we worked hard.

We decided that we really needed our own zoo and the living room was the perfect place for it.

It was a day long project to put it all together… and boy, did we have fun!

The first task was sending the girls through the house to find zoo animals. They looked and looked until we had quite a pile.

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Now, it was time for the signs.

The girls helped me figure out what animals we had.

We sorted all the animals. We had lions, bears, monkeys, horses, a whole lot of rabbits and more.

I wrote the names on the signs and the girls started decorating them.

After a break for lunch and naps, it was time to set up that zoo.

At this point, I did have my own secret plans… we had to clean up all the other toys in the living room in order to set up our zoo. I’ve never seen the toys get picked up so quickly!

We found a spot for all of our zoo animals and then found the matching sign for each.

Lizzie worked on determining the beginning letters of the animals and building a zoo provided a lot of motivation for her. (I love it when I can sneak learning into our play!)

Once every animal had a spot, we had one more thing to do. We needed a map. After all, every zoo we’ve been to has had a map.

I did the drawing and the writing, but Lizzie helped me every step of the way. When it was done we had to walk through the zoo by following the map. In fact, she had that map in her hands the entire time she was playing! Lizzie loves maps.

At one point, I even let her take the camera around and take pictures of our zoo. You can see some of the pictures she took below. If you notice, our cat plopped her self down on the couch and took a nap all afternoon. We made her an exhibit in the zoo. After all, she is an animal!

When Daddy got home that night, the girls were eager to give him a tour of the zoo. Before bedtime, all of the animals got fed and put to bed. We still have the zoo set up today… we’ll see where the fun leads us!