1. Brittinie Gleave
Objectives: Learn about various animals found in zoos, including their natural habitat,
whether they are endangered, and whether they have fur, feathers, scales or fins.
Before beginning your quest, you need to know some important vocabulary.
Visit http://www.wordsmyth.net/
Use the search bar to type in the words in the table. Make sure you have the circle
for children's dictionary filled in. Fill in the missing information based on what you
find.
Word Definition Example
Environment
Habitat
Local
Exotic
Endangered
Extinct
Conservation
Animal
Zoo
Activist
When table is complete, return to the home screen of Wordsmyth. On the top right
corner there is a tab that says sign in. Click on it and sign in with the username
Brittinieg and the password student. Once you are logged in, click on the tab that
says my activities in the upper right corner. In the table that says Saved Activities,
click on the paper and pencil next on the line that says Zoo Words. This will open a
vocabulary quiz for you to complete online. In the quiz choose the word that best

2. matches the definition from the drop down menu. Click finish and check answers
when complete.
Did you get 100%? If not, you can try again.
Now you're ready to move on
Watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV_idfKcCdQ
The song/video talks about many different animals. Pick out five of them and
determine if they are local (to North America), or exotic.
You can look them up on the kids' biology website:
http://www.kidsbiology.com/animals-for-children.php For animals that have
more than one type (like bears), choose just one. Information about where
they live can be found in the purple box with the red title: animal facts
about one-third of the way down the page on the right side. If they live in
North America, add them to the local side of the chart below. If they live
elsewhere, add them to the exotic side of the chart.
Local Exotic
For each animal in your list, find out which continent they come from on the kids' biology
website and list them in the appropriate text box on the map below.
Greenland
North America Asia
Europe
Africa

3. Time to explore your animals further... decide if each of your animals is
covered in fur/smooth skin, feathers, scales (with feet) scales (with fins), or
something else. Place each one in the appropriate place in the table below.
Fur/smooth skin Feathers Scales with feet Scales with fins Other
(mammals) (Birds) (reptiles) (fish) (insects,
invertabrates)
Go to http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/kids/animals-pets-kids/
and watch a video for each of your five animals. The words in parentheses in
the above table will help you figure out where to look. If there is no video
for some or all of your animals, choose others you find interesting.
Based on what you observed in the videos, write a sentence for each animal.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Coloring time! Pick your very favorite animal that you've colored so far. Go
to
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/activities/moreactivities/coloring-
book-animals-a-to-i/ if your animal starts with a letter from A to I.

4. http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/activities/moreactivities/coloring-
book-animals-j-to-z/ if your animal starts with a letter from J to Z
Ask the printer helper to help you print your picture (if you know how to
print your own, you can do so). Color your animal as detailed as you can, based
on what you have learned so far.
o On the back of your picture, write the name of your animal, whether
it is local or exotic, if it's exotic, what continent it lives on, and how
it's categorized (mammal, reptile, bird, fish, or other).
You've learned so much about animals already! Let's learn some more! Do you
remember the word habitat from our vocabulary list above.
Summarize your understanding of a habitat:
A habitat is:
We have talked about the different continents animals live on, but did you know that each
continent has many different types of habitats?
Visit
http://www.uen.org/utahlink/activities/view_activity.cgi?activity_id=3792
and study the list of 16 habitats. Can you think of an animal that lives in any
of them?
To learn more about habitats, watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2vY_lohq50&feature=related
What are the things Cameron tells us a habitat provides?
1. Wanda the fish wants to leave her habitat.
2. Can animals live outside their habitats?
3. Why or why not?
1.

5. 2.
3.
Do you know enough about habitats to play a habitat game? Try it out! Roll
over the elements on the screen and use the arrows to change them. The
goal is 100% compatibility.
http://switchzoo.com/games/habitatgame.htm
On a blank piece of paper, draw the habitat in which you live. Be sure to
include everything that is important to your survival.
Now imagine that something keeps coming into your habitat and taking the
things you need until you were about to run out. That is what is happening to
many of the Earth's habitats. Think of the story of the Lorax. The Onceler
wanted to make a better life for himself, but he did it at the expense of the
Truffula forest. Before long, the brown barbaloots, and the swami swans
were no longer supported by their habitat and had to leave it. It happens in
our world too. People are destroying the rainforest to make life better for
themselves. Soon, all the animals that live there will no longer be supported
by their habitat. Sadly, these animals can't just move on to another habitat.
They are in the one that is designed for them. For this reason many animals
(or species) are endangered. Remember, this means they are in danger of
becoming extinct. If this happens, these animals will be gone forever, like
the dinosaurs.
What can we do? Remember our word conservation? Summarize your
understanding of what this word means:
Conservation:
Watch the following clip for some pointers on what we can do every day to
help http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIQUOIyE7q0&feature=fvwrel
(Go ahead and skip the ad)
The chart below lists the ways the song says we can help the Earth.
Following the two dots (colon) in each line, write how you think this can help
the planet.
Reduce, reuse, recycle:

6. Be kind to plants and animals:
Shake hands with a sister or a brother:
Follow your dreams:
Doing everyday things, like turning off things that use electricity, not letting water run
while we brush teeth and wash hands, and heating and cooling only the rooms we're in can
help the earth a lot.
Here is a fun game to help you practice turning off lights:
http://wwf.panda.org/how_you_can_help/games/earth_hour_game/
What was your score? How many lights can you turn off at home every day?
If we want to be superheroes , though, we need to be activists. Do you
remember what that means? I'll explain this one for you. It's a little complicated. The
definition is: one who advocates (speaks out for) with vigor (strong energy) or militance (a
fighting spirit). Being an activist means sometimes doing things that aren't easy, like not
using your car, buying things that don't harm the rainforest when they're made, and
always thinking about the impact you and the people you know are having on the planet.
Beyond these actions, activists try hard to spread their message. They make posters,
write letters, and join groups of others who feel the same way. The most important part
of being an activist is to know your facts, and share them with others.
This brings us back to zoos. Most people who work in zoos care a lot
about animals and conservation. If all the exotic animals go extinct, there won't be many
zoos left, and people who work in them won't have jobs. Also, sick and injured animals
often go to zoos to be taken care of. Finally, zoos help other people care about animals.
We might care a little bit about saving elephants if we have never seen one, but after

7. seeing cute baby Zuri playing at Hogle zoo, we will have a personal connection to elephants
and care a lot more.
If you visit Zuri's blog http://www.babyzuriblog.blogspot.com/, there is a
video of her second birthday party.
What is Zuri doing in the video?
Zuri is
Elephants are my favorite exotic animal. What is yours?
One last note about zoos. Sometimes we have to be activists for zoo animals too.
Remember, wild animals aren't meant to live in small spaces, and surrounded by humans all
day. Many zoos understand this and have lots of land and no cages.
Here is a short video of Elephant Odyssey at San Diego Zoo
http://www.elephantodyssey.com/video/.
After viewing the two videos, why do you think the elephants at San Diego
Zoo are happier than the elephants at Hogle Zoo?
Elephants in San Diego are happier because
List three rules there should be at the zoo to help keep animals happy.
1.
2.
3.
Congratulations! You have now completed our Zoo Webquest. Please save your final copy,
and ask for help printing it out. Turn it in along with the pictures you created.