Toronto Reptile Zoo-Turtles and Cobras and Nile Crocodiles, Oh My!

When I saw an advertisement in my local paper for discount tickets to the Toronto Reptile Zoo, I immediately thought of the easy connection that could be made to the Grade 1 and Grade 2 Science and Technology Curriculum: "Understanding Life Systems" Strand. In this science teacher's opinion, if you have never been to the Toronto Reptile Zoo, it is definitely worth the trip! I must admit, I was a little skeptical as to how amazing a zoo located inside what is essentially a large commercial building in a industrial strip mall type setting could be; but after going through their website and visiting the place, my skepticism was laid to rest. They cater to those who do home school and offer sessions that directly teach aspects of the Ontario Science and Technology 1-8 Curriculum in a hands-on, interactive manner. They offer live feedings and live shows every hour on the hour that discuss aspects such as cold-blooded versus warm blooded, the food chain and food web, habitat, diet and mating, along with characteristics specific to each reptile and reptile family. Although I truly expected a show focusing on the "wow" factor of these scary things that creeped, crawled and swam, the focus was completely educational-a 15 minute (roughly) blurb about the reptile, at least 15 minutes devoted to questions, and, the best part, 15 minutes devoted to actually being able to touch, smell and watch the reptile move without the separation of a pane of thick glass!

To prepare for our visit, we spent some time learning about some of the different reptiles that were at the Toronto Reptile Zoo using a variety of different media. We read dictionaries and encyclopedias, devoured National Geographic's website and watched videos of reptiles in action. I created a little worksheet for a few of them and had both the littlest and not-so-littlest one answer questions about diet, habitat and characteristics in order for them to practice both their printing skills and more importantly, their ability to digest information, analyze and make sense of it, and then communicate their understanding through writing:

When we discussed habitat, we used a globe and discussed where each reptile was found in the world and what characteristics of that particular place made it an ideal place for that reptile to flourish, and, in some cases, even went as far as to discuss the similarities and differences in locations in the event a species was found in more than one part of the world.

When we returned home, we talked about the "habitats" that existed in the reptile zoo for the species we focused on and how they resembled (or didn't resemble) the natural habitat we learned about. I decided, due to the sheer volume of diverse species found at the Toronto Reptile Zoo along with the sheer amount of different ways I could connect this zoo to the Ontario curriculum using a multidisciplinary approach-science and technology, geography, history, sustainability, and even mathematics (think graphing, Venn diagrams and percentage)-to pick up a few more discount tickets...stay turned!