I think zoos should be closed. It is cruel to keep animals in captivity.

1. No!! Yes!! What do you think? I think that zoos that help animals who have been injured badly, have had their habitat destroyed or don't have enough food, should stay open. Jill and Anya, friends I think zoos should be closed. It is cruel to keep animals in captivity.

2. Cheetah Gorilla Amur tiger Greater one-horned rhinoceros Pigmy hippo Bactrian camel Conservation is one of the reasons why we have zoos. They help protect and breed endangered animals… Okapi Black-footed penguin

3. Most of us would never get to see wild animals if there weren’t any zoos. We can learn a lot about the wildlife of the world at a good zoo. Wild animals should be out there roaming freely, not stuck all crammed up in zoos. Penguin feeding times: 10:30 am 1:15 pm 4:45 pm

4. It’s in the News! Teacher’s guide Towards the end of 2010 there was a three-part documentary about London Zoo and the efforts they are making in the conservation of endangered species, particularly gorillas. They have become endangered through such things as their habitats being destroyed, or poaching - mostly things we humans are doing to them. Zoos remain a contentious issue: imprisoning wild animals who should be free, or helping their future through protection and breeding programmes? This series was repeated earlier this year. You might like to show some clips from the programme to your class. … continued on the next slide

5. … continued In these slides there are links to geography as we provide ideas for exploring the different countries where the animals come from and also some links to science. They give opportunities for work on a variety of mathematical concepts including number, data handling, measurement, position and direction. Before you use the slides you might find it helpful to look at the following websites for further information: ITV.com Wikipedia List of zoos worldwide … continued on the next slide

6. … continued Born Free Foundation zoo check ZSL PETA UK The eight-lesson pack Citizenship: Animals and Us contains eight lesson plans for key stages 1 and 2, examining how animals’ lives interact with our own. The lesson plans focus on issues including the role of zoos, companion animal care and elephants in captivity: petaf.org.uk

7. 1st spread: Zoos – Do we need them? ● Ask the children if they have ever visited a zoo. You could use this as an opportunity to practice single criteria Venn and Carroll diagrams: been to a zoo/not been to a zoo. ● You could talk about favourite zoo animals, make a tally and frequency table and then represent this as a pictogram, bar or line chart. ● You could look at the list of zoos in the link provided and identify the ones in the UK, plot some of the most familiar of these or the ones closest to your school on a map and work out the distance from school to each one. How long would it take to travel there and back to one? How long would it take and what distances would you cover to visit them all? You could of course explore further and work out how much it would cost in petrol at current prices. ● You could ask the children to plan a visit to one – maybe a school trip. They should explore routes, possible modes of transport, distances and work out how long it would take to get there. They could plan and make a timetable for the day beginning with time leaving school, time arriving at zoo, lunch, leaving for return to school, arrival back at school and include other things they might want to do while they are there. They could find out the entry price, cost of a coach (divided between everyone going), budget for food and souvenirs and find out how much it might cost each child for the trip. There might be group or age discounts. They could explore how these would effect the total price. ● Look at the comments of the children and discuss the pros and cons of zoos. You could ask the children to make up a questionnaire to help them decide why we should have zoos and what they should look or why we shouldn’t and then collate responses and display in some form of chart, table, diagram or graph. They could make a presentation to the rest of the class. Plenty has been said about zoos and information is freely available to search for on the internet, so they could use this information and the view points shared to make up their questionnaire. …continued on the next slide

8. 1st spread: Zoos – Do we need them?continued… ● You could focus on the animals on the slide and use the numbers of penguins drawn to practise simple addition and subtraction, number pairs to ten, one more/less, and estimation. ● The children could draw their own penguin number line to practise counting, or snap cards to practise number pairs or simple addition. ● You could ask the children to find out some information about giraffes e.g. their height and weight, their life span, the number of young they produce, where they live in the wild, what they eat. If possible find giraffe body ratios and use these to draw scaled down pictures or make models. If they can’t find any body ratios they could measure the limbs with rulers or string and estimate ratios of leg to length of neck, body from base of neck to back legs and work out what the scaled down size would be. ● You could repeat this for the lion and gorilla. This would be good for comparing weights of babies and adults. This could involve practical estimating and weighing too. How do the babies compare with average weights of human babies? ● For penguins, you could ask the children to find out how many breeds there are in the world and to make fact-files for these. They could make up 'trumps cards' giving different attributes and breeds different values. They could use them to play 'trumps' as a game of strategy and also as a way of practising mental calculation strategies for addition and subtraction. ● You could ask them to find the heights of the grown male penguins of each breed and to compare them using counting on strategies - good link to number lines and measures. They could then make scaled down drawings, which will include division, to compare their heights and show the differences visually. …continued on the next slide

9. 1st spread: Zoos – Do we need them?continued… ● You could ask the children to make a zoo in an empty sand tray, with areas of water for penguins and other animals that need it, and areas of sand or earth for other animals. They could write instructions saying the amount of water used and quantities of sand and earth. They could make these measurements in cups or specific amounts using standard units. They could fill it with toy animals and use these for some counting activities. ● You could ask the children to find the average numbers of different animals at one particular zoo and use these facts to compare and find differences by counting on. You could also use this as an opportunity for work on fractions and percentages, drawing pie charts and bar graphs etc. There could be an opportunity for word problem solving e.g. there were 120 penguins at the local zoo, 5% were Emperor penguins, how many weren't? 5/8 of the 640 animals at the zoo were mammals, how many weren't? ● Estimate and then find out the amount and type of food needed to feed all the animals every day. What is the total weight and cost? Calculate the total weight of animals in the zoo and their total height. Other questions to investigate could be how many legs in the zoo? How many wings? How many claws?

10. 2nd spread: Animal conservation ● The London Zoo programme on the television featured various animals that were undergoing conservation programmes. These included: ● Cheetahs from Tanzania ● Gorillas from the Congo, Gabon, Uganda ● Amur tigers from Russia ● Bactrian camels from Southern Mongolia and China ● Greater one-horned rhinoceros from Nepal, Bhutan and India ● Pigmy hippos from West Africa: Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea ● Black footed penguins from Antarctica ● Okapi from the Congo ● Ask the children to locate these countries on the map of the world. Ask questions such as: what is its capital city, what ocean or sea is at its coast, what countries are next to it, what continent is it in. You could work out the distances from each capital to London or a city near you using string or rulers and convert using the scale on the map. ● For each animal ask the children to research them in detail and make a fact file to include weight and height when fully grown, average life span, average number of young, where they live, what and how much they eat, what they drink. ● Whenever focussing on weight or height compare to items commonly found in the classroom. If the children are happy to be measured, compare with them. …continued on the next slide

11. 2nd spread: Animal conservationcontinued… ● Explore the countries that the animals are found in and compare rainfall, temperature, hours of sunshine to the UK. You could explore the type of terrain and landscape e.g. rain forest, polar region, desert, mountain. What special arrangements might zoos need to make to give the animals a suitable environment? This could involve creating bar, bar line or line graphs and charts. ● The children could pretend to be an animal conservationist and plan a trip to one of these countries to visit one of the animals. They would need to consider the climate so they know the type of clothes they would need. They would need to consider their journey in terms of cost and time and also accommodation, currency etc. Ask them to find out approximately how much their trip would cost. They could do this as a presentation for the rest of the class.

12. 3rd spread: Education ● Discuss the benefits of zoos in terms of places where people can see real wild life when without them they would only probably get to see them on the television or in films. Discuss the idea of them being crammed into small spaces, when their natural habitat allows them to roam freely. ● Have a look at the map of a zoo. You could use this to recap simple coordinates and ask the children to locate various items on it. ● If possible give them a paper copy and to work with a partner. They could plan a route around the zoo, seeing what animals they can visit without retracing their steps. They could plot the coordinates of the various animals that they would see on their route. ● Ask them to find the coordinates for the cafe. You could use this as an opportunity for them to consider what might be sold in one and to make up a cafe menu, with an appropriate title and to cost the items they wish to sell. They could work in groups making orders and working out the costs. Some of them could offer percentage discounts, so adding in another element of mathematics. ● They could have opening and closing times and work out how long their cafe will be available for selling food and drink. ● You could repeat this idea for the zoo shop with all its souvenirs. the children could look online and find out the sort of souvenirs sold. ● Look at the feeding time poster and use this as an opportunity to work on time. They could plan other feeding times for other animals which are at times when the children could see all the feeding that goes on. ● They could make up their own map with their choices of animals. This could be on a simple coordinate map or if the children are able to they could create one that uses four quadrants. …continued on the next slide

13. 3rd spread: Education continued… ● The ideas for mathematics within the zoo theme are numerous. These are just a few. If you have any more that you have tried out successfully please let us know. ● Further ideas in Primary Magazine Issue 26 We're going to the zoo...how about you? ● You might find some past It’s in the News!/Up2d8 maths presentations helpful, for example Issue 28 Orang-utans; Issue 21 Terrapins; Issue 16 Pandas.