Boys' School Zoo Snooze

The Year 3 boys ventured to the Auckland Zoo last week where they had a ‘Zoo Snooze’ at the Old Elephant House as part of their learning inquiry into ‘How we share the planet’ – the world is for living things to share.

In anticipation of their late night sleepover, the boys arrived at School at 1.30pm after a morning spent at home. Together with their very dedicated parent helpers, the boys then left for the zoo at 4.00pm, each class going on a different evening so the numbers were manageable.

An afternoon wander around the Zoo started the adventure with lots of chatting, photography, laughter and learning from the excited groups. Dave, the group zoo leader, lead the evening and expected the boys to do everything for themselves from clearing dishes to setting up their sleeping bags for the night.

After sausages and salads for dinner the boys played group quiz games, were shown through the animal food storage area and freezers and had a ‘Safari Walk’ with their red light torches to observe the animals at night. A few lucky boys were even able to feed a cabbage to the hippopotamus.

Lights were out at 10.30pm with a very early morning start programmed for the next day. The boys were up again at 6.30am and after breakfast they had another wander around the zoo to see the monkey enclosures and learn interesting facts about their behaviour.

By 9.00am the boys had returned back to school ready for their parents to collect them, along with their newly created memories and unique stories to share.

The Year 3s had an amazing, special, learning experience. Thank you to the Year 3 teachers.