Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

Apr
21

Cub Scout Badge Day-Saturday, May 5th!

Posted by in Classes/Programs,Events

Our last big badge day of the year will be for Cub Scouts on Saturday, May 5th. The Houston Zoo’s Education Department will welcome Tigers, Wolves, Bears and Webelos for a day of fun activities, Zoo tours, games, and more!

Our badge days are usually broken into morning and afternoon sessions to give scouts the opportunity to take more than one class. Our morning sessions will run from 9:30-11:30am followed by the afternoon sessions from 1:00-3:00pm.

We’re really excited for this event because our department has really mixed things up with our badge topics! What does that mean, you may ask? Well, let me explain…

One of the Zoo machines participants in the Wolf badge will learn about.

We’re adding in all kinds of fun and unique electives and achievements into our badge programs. For example, our Bears will be learning the ins and outs of photography while our Wolves take a look at machines and man power and compare them to the strength of animals!

We’ve even added an artistic element to many of our programs. The Webelos will learn how to sculpt and use primary and secondary colors, while the Bears will be busy making paper mache animal masks!

The day is sure to be packed with fun activities both in the classroom and out on Zoo grounds. Member adults are FREE, so parents and scout leaders are welcome to join in the on-grounds fun as well.

Want to know more? Visit our website for pricing, class availability, and the schedule for the day.

Cub Scout Badge Day is generously sponsored by ExxonMobil.

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Apr
07

April: Story Safari at the Houston Zoo!

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

We’ll be making a whole lot of wonderful noises this month during Story Safari at the Children’s Zoo’s butterfly stage with a new favorite book titled Mr. Brown can Moo! Can you? By Dr. Seuss. We’ll be reading this classic book everyday beginning April 8th through April 21st at 10:30:00AM and 11:00:00AM.

Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? by Dr. Seuss

Oh, the things Mr. Brown can do! Join us as we listen to the talented Mr. Brown show us all that he can do. Did you know “Mr. Brown is so smart he can even do this: he can even make a noise like a goldfish kiss!… pip!”? Come show us all the wonderful noise you can make during Story Safari at the Children’s Zoo’s Butterfly Stage! Note: Adults might need aspirin after this. :-)

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Mar
16

March: Story Safari at the Houston Zoo!

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

Spring break is upon us and it has been busy, busy, busy here at the Houston Zoo! We’ve seen a lot of new faces at Story Safari just in the last few days. We’ve also had some animal guest appearances during our 11:00AM Story Safari! The only one we’re missing is you, so please come join us during Story Safari at 10:30AM and 11:00AM everyday at the Children’s Zoo’s Butterfly Stage. From now until March 25th 2012 we will be reading a new book titled Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems.

 

Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems

Leonardo is a terrible monster – terrible at being a monster that is! He’s just not as scary as any of the other monsters and he’s even a little bit cute! Leonardo is determined to scare someone so he looks for the perfect victim, a nervous little boy named Sam. When Leonardo sneaks up on his unsuspecting victim, will he be able to scare the tuna salad out of him? Don’t be a scaredy-cat; join us for Story Safari to find out!

 

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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

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