Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

Feb
10

February: Story Safari at the Houston Zoo!

Posted by in Events,Featured,Fun on grounds,Public Programs,Uncategorized

February – the love month!- is finally here and it has brought a lot of lovely new books for us to read with you and your family during Story Safari in the Houston Zoo’s Butterfly Stage. We will be reading two different books per month this year. Because February is all about love and friendship, for the next couple of weeks, Bennett and Viviana will read a sweet story about a worrisome squirrel who discovers his “perfect” friend.

To learn more about the Houston Zoo storytellers click here!

Scaredy Squirrel Makes A Friend by Melanie Watt
 
The book is called Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend by Melanie Watt. It will be read every day for two weeks at 10:30AM and 11:00AM during Story Safari at the Houston Zoo’s Butterfly Stage. So be our perfect friend and join us for this nutty story!
 

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Dec
13

Winter Camp Zoofari is a comin’…

Posted by in Camp,Education Office,Events,Fun on grounds

…and it’ll be here before you know it! Just when the weather starts to get a bit cooler and Summer Camp Zoofari is but a distant memory, our department gets geared up for round 2-Winter Camp Zoofari!

 

Feeding our Masai giraffes

What better way to spend your Christmas vacation than here at the Zoo? Winter Camp Zoofari will host kids ages 4-12 during the week of December 19th-23rd. Since Winter Camp is only a week long, each day will be a different camp topic, depending on the age of the child attending. We have every topic from Adventures in the Rainforest to Wildlife Photography and Stories for the youngest campers!

Each camp day, kids will visit the new African Forest exhibit, feed our Masai giraffes, ride the carousel, participate in a Zooper Challenge and meet a live touchable animal! There’s so much to do and enjoy each day in Camp Zoofari that some days it’s hard to fit it all in.

So, for the next few days our Education Department will be hard at work preparing classrooms, reviewing curricula, getting craft supplies and animal biofacts ready for what is proving to be another fun and exciting Camp Zoofari experience! We hope that your kids will be part of that experience this December!

Campers enjoy touring Zoo grounds (especially our new elephant expansion!)

For more information (including our Winter Camp brochure) and to register, visit our website at: www.houstonzoo.org/camp.

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Nov
15

Another Successful Educator Day!

Posted by in Classes/Programs,Education Office,Events,Teacher Resources

It seems like just yesterday I was blogging about summer camp and now… POOF! It’s almost December and we’ve just hosted another successful Educator Day. I’m sure most of you reading this blog feel the same way. Time just passes by, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t stop it!

With busy schedules, families, jobs, etc. sometimes it’s hard to make the trek out to the Zoo. So, when we have over 100 educators join us for our annual Educator Day we are thrilled! This was the case this past Saturday.

Educators from all over the greater Houston area came out to learn more about wildlife, conservation, education programs, and activities they could bring back to their classroom. In the morning, we welcomed our participants with 2 birds of prey. A great horned owl visited from Natural Encounters, and a Harris hawk came to see the Educators all the way from the Children’s Zoo!

A sneak peek at our new Teacher Tools page!

After our introduction and welcome, participants had the opportunity to pick between several tour options. These new tours (called Creature Quests) are brand new FREE resources offered to teachers.  When they visit the Zoo they can take their students on a meaningful, fun, and educational trip to several different exhibits. The Creature Quests prompt teachers to ask students further thinking questions, and are all topic specific.

In the afternoon we offered several workshops that included hands-on activities. Our auditorium was the conservation hot spot, and host to Carole Allen (Gulf Office Director of Sea Turtle Restoration and HEART) along with Rachel Rommel and Paul Crump (important members of our Conservation Department). We talked about amphibians (including the Houston Toad), sea turtles, and native freshwater turtles-all animals that need our help, right in our own backyards!

Green Sea Turtle

Needless to say, the day went well. We gave away 3 amazing raffle items which included some very vibrant paintings done by our own Kenyan sand boa, as well as HZI swag for all of Educators who participated.

I bet you’re now wondering how you can be involved in our next Educator event? Right?

Well…don’t look any further because our next event will be the Educator Overnight on Friday, January 27th from 6pm to 9am the next day. Registration isn’t available yet…but we will be sure to post it on our Facebook page (Houston Zoo Teacher Talk), our NEW teacher webpage (www.houstonzoo.org/teachers) and right here on our blog!

We hope to see you then!

 

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Oct
19

A Day JUST for Educators!

Posted by in Education Office,Events,Teacher Resources

Working in the Education Department here at the Houston Zoo gives us the opportunity to work with a variety of ages, from infants to senior citizens. One of the groups we see is educators, which is why we dedicate an entire day every fall just for them.

This year’s Educator Day is Saturday, November 12th. The event runs from 9:00am to 3:00pm and gives educators the chance to learn new animal facts, discover creative activities to use in their classroom and explore what’s new at the Zoo! We offer 3 to 6 continuing education credit hours for participants, as well as a raffle and giveaways for all registrants. The price is $20 per person and includes admission into the Zoo.

Green sea turtle-native to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico

We tailor our workshops, activities and tours to educators, so we only allow adults over the age of 18 to participate. We welcome college students studying education, administrators and teachers of all disciplines to register!

This year we will be offering three special opportunities. The first is a meet and greet to start off the morning with some of our most special birds of prey from around the Zoo.

One of our conservation workshops will be conducted by Carole Allen, the Gulf Office Director of Sea Turtle Restoration and HEART. Carole will be presenting a workshop called “Sea Turtle Conservation in the Classroom” where she will be giving educators fun craft and project ideas as well as playing a documentary about the endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle.

We will also offer discounted tickets for participating educators to the Call of the Wild Speaker Series that afternoon. Dr. Douglas Smith from the Yellowstone Wolf Restoration Project will be in the Brown Education Center speaking about his experience with wildlife from 4:00-5:00pm. The event kicks off at 3:30pm with informational booths about some of our North American conservation projects. Educators who attend this speaker series can not only buy discounted tickets at Educator Day, they will also receive an additional 1.5 hours of continuing education credit hours. How could you say no?!?

Join us at the Call of the Wild Speaker Series to learn more about the Wolves in Yellowstone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Registration information as well as our schedule of events can be found on our website at www.houstonzoo.org/teachers. We hope to see you at the Zoo on Saturday, November 12th!

If you haven’t joined the education conversation yet, make sure to do so by becoming a fan of Houston Zoo Teacher Talk on Facebook. It’s the easiest, fastest way to keep up-to-date with all of the educational happenings at the Houston Zoo!

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Oct
05

SOS: Howlerween at the Houston Zoo!

Posted by in Animal Fun Facts,Animal Information,Events,Fun on grounds

The Houston Zoo’s Primate Department will be celebrating their 3rd annual Howlerween during the entire month of October! There will be special Howler Monkey Meet the Keeper Talks every day at 3:30p.m. “Howlerween” will coincide with Zoo Boo from 9a.m. to 3p.m. both days inside Wortham World of Primates near the Howler Monkey exhibit. 

 

Howler monkeys are the largest of the New World monkeys and they have the loudest call of any land mammal. (Click here to listen to a Black Howler Monkey) Their deep, howling calls can be heard almost 3 miles through the tropical forest of Central and South America! Howler Monkeys are critically endangered due to the illegal pet trade and bushmeat crisis.

On the weekend of October 22-23 we will be holding a Spotlight on Species event which will include educational activities, Howler Monkey keeper chats at 10a.m., 2p.m., and 3:30p.m., as well as a variety of merchandise that will be on sale to help raise money for Wildtracks. Wildtracks is a non-profit organization that rehabilitates these illegally procured monkeys and reintroduces them into the wild forests of northern Belize.  Primate keepers Rachel Vass and Helen Boostrom visited Belize in June and spent time working at Wildtracks with some of these rehabilitated monkeys. You can read their blog posts on the Houston Zoo’s Wild Conservation Blog!

Visit our website to learn all the details about our special Howlerween Spotlight on Species weekend on October 22-23, located in our Wortham World of Primates. Please come out and visit us for a howling good time!

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Oct
04

First Annual Get Out and Play at the Houston Zoo!

Posted by in Events,Fun on grounds

The warthog race!

On September 17th, 2011 the Houston Zoo hosted the first annual Get Out and Play event and it was a huge success! Get Out and Play was a day to raise awareness for Nature Deficit Disorder. The event was jam packed with exciting games and activities for children and adults to enjoy, and reached over 1,000 guests in its’ very first year.

 

Kids pretending to be chimps, fishing termites out of the termite mound!

The most popular game for children that day was the big termite mound outside of Tommy’s Tree House at our chimp exhibit. The children had to scavenge for termites as if they were real chimpanzees using fake bamboo sticks! Other games involved children pretending they where jaguars on the hunt, and warthogs escaping danger along with many other fun games to play!  

Get Out and Play wasn’t just about fun animal games; KickStart came out and demonstrated martial arts as well as did a mini-lesson for the kids at the Zoo to learn some cool moves!

Jumping like a jaguar!

But that’s still not all; the Houston Texans (the sponsor of the day) sent out Toro and brought an inflatable football toss for children to practice their throwing skills. As you can see the day was filled with games and activities to enjoy as a family. We are looking forward to next year’s Get Out and Play Event!!

-Written by Amy Barnhill, Education Specialist

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Sep
29

Girl Scout Badge Day!

Posted by in Classes/Programs,Events

Learning about snakes!

Does your Girl Scout need to earn badges? Are you looking for a fun and interactive way to achieve that? Look no further, The Houston Zoo’s Education department is hosting our second Girl Scout Badge Day on October 1st!

We are offering programs from Daisies to Cadettes and everything in between. Your Girl Scout has the chance to earn 2 different badges in 1 day! Now that’s deal if you ask me! 

Each class consists of hands-on activities, crafts to take home, and animal observations out on grounds to meet Badge requirements!

Touring the Zoo!

There will be raffle prize tickets for sale as well as Houston Zoo Scout Day patches! Parents will have access to the Zoo while their Girl Scout is in class and will have an opportunity to join them for Zoo tours.

For more information on registration, schedule of the day, or Badges being offered click here

Sep
03

SOS: St. Vincent Amazon Parrot

Posted by in Events,Fun on grounds

One of the reasons I love my job is that I get to work with some pretty amazing people. In our SOS programs (Spotlight on Species) that happen all year round on Zoo grounds, the Education Department assists in a variety of ways. SOS programs are setup by animal sections who want to draw attention to a particular species in need. Once they have a date in mind for their event the Education Department gets to step in and help them with their messaging.

St. Vincent Amazon Parrot

 

Being a liason for an SOS event has some serious perks. First, we get to spend time with keepers that we may not know very well. This helps to create a cohesive work environment between all departments of the Zoo. Second, we get to learn in depth about an animal in our collection! For instance, I am helping out with the St. Vincent Amazon Parrot SOS on Sunday, September 4th. Before I started working with the fabulous Bird Department I had NO idea that we are the ONLY Zoo in North America to exhibit these birds…crazy!

Another perk of working on an SOS is getting to share our knowledge (from an education standpoint) with keepers. Each group benefits…who could ask for more? And last, but certainly not least, we get to help out at the event and talk to the public about an animal that needs your help!

With less than 800 of these left in the wild, we need your help!

So why not enjoy your Labor Day weekend here at the Houston Zoo? The Bird Department will host their SOS for the St. Vincent Parrot next to Stormy the Bird Bank from 11am to 3pm on Sunday, September 4th. There will be crafts to do, photos for sale, games, activities, keeper chats-you  name it! You may even leave the Zoo learning something about these parrots that you didn’t know before (but shh…we won’t tell!).

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Mar
07

A Successful Career Conference!

Posted by in Classes/Programs,Events,Featured

On Sunday, February 27, we held our first annual Teen Career Conference.  It was an amazing success!

Hollie Colahan, Curator of Primates and Carnivores, speaks to a crowded auditorium.

The event included a lot of fun stuff for teens interested in an animal-related career.  Five speakers from animal sections spoke about their jobs and how they got into them.  Dr. Joe Flanagan, Director of Veterinary Services, was the most popular speaker with a packed auditorium!   Exhibitors included colleges, universities, and conservation and animal organizations from around Houston.  Three of them also gave presentations. 

Our exhibitors had a great response from participants, and some of the booths stayed very busy!

We had a staff member available throughout the conference for teens to ask questions about resumes, applications, and interviews.  Two of our own, Erin and Patrick, spoke about volunteer opportunities here at the Zoo.  Patrick’s Zoo Crew sessions were incredibly popular!

As this was the first time we held the event, those of us who planned it were hoping for about 100 participants.  We were all surprised and pleased when we discovered we had exceeded 200!  Other than a crowded parking lot (the weather was beautiful and the Zoo was packed) it went very well and everyone I spoke to seemed pleased with it.

We’re looking forward to doing it again next year!!

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Feb
03

MD Anderson Kids Provide Hearts O’ Fun!

Posted by in Events,Fun on grounds

At the end of January of this year we had several children from MD Anderson Cancer Center visit the Houston Zoo. They brought along family members and some of their care staff to provide enrichment for our white rhinos and chimpanzees.

What is enrichment again? Oh yeah, it’s that fun stuff you give to your animals…

Well, yes. On a more technical note it is anything that keepers provide to their animals to promote natural behaviors they would exhibit in the wild. This not only keeps them physically active, but mentally and emotionally stimulated as well.

The kids from MD Anderson were gracious enough to make HUGE hearts for our rhinos and chimps that the keepers happily stuffed with goodies. For our chimpanzees the hearts were stuffed with fruit and the rhinos had alfalfa in theirs.

At the chimp exhibit the kids watched on as their nicely decorated hearts were thrown over the edge for the chimps to explore. At first our troop of chimps were confused…they didn’t know what this foreign object was and they were unsure as to who would dive in first. Not too long after the chimps had discovered there were tasty treats inside the hearts were ripped open! Willie, our youngest chimp, proceeded to tear the enrichment into pieces even after all of the fruit had been removed.

As for our rhinos, the heart was stuck in their pile of alfalfa, and then they were let out into their yard. They weren’t extremely interested at first but Annie, one of our female rhinos, discovered the heart was stuffed with alfalfa! She proceeded to get her horn stuck inside the heart as she looked for food (I think that may be a sign of shear delight). Not to worry, she quickly got her horn removed and proceeded to chow down on her newly discovered meal.

Our rhinos exploring the heart!

After all was said and done, not only were our animals happy, but the kids enjoyed themselves as well. It’s not every day that children get to make enrichment for a wild animal and observe them exploring it. It’s even more important to have these opportunities for kids who spend a lot of their day inside hospital walls!

Outside of this enrichment opportunity, the Education Department also devotes one week in the fall called “Zoo Week” to the kids at MD Anderson. Staff will go over every day throughout the week to share information about our animals, show biofacts to the kids and create art projects with them.

This partnership is a fulfilling one to say the least, and we hope to maintain it for years to come.

One of our rhinos getting its horn stuck inside the enrichment!

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