These packs are companions to the Audiomoves at the zoo podcast recordings. Read an overview of how to use these packs here.

You can download these lesson plans as a pdf here

ACTIVITY 1:
THE PODCAST (ZOOKEEPER Q&A)
  1. Introduction
    Introduce the animal and let the children know they are about to listen to an interview with a zookeeper from London Zoo.
  2. Play the podcast Q&A (time code: 00:00 - 07:57).
  3. Once the Q&A has finished (07:57), press pause.
  4. Discussion
    Ask the children what their favourite fact from the interview was.
ACTIVITY 2:
WORD SEARCH/TERMINOLOGY

In class, explain the following useful words that were used by Anusia

  • Regurgitation: the action of bringing swallowed food up again to the mouth
  • Bleat: the typical sound of a sheep or a goat
  • Frequency: the rate at which something occurs over a particular period of time. When talking about sound, frequency is the length of sound waves, which determines whether the pitch is high or low.  
  • Ossicones: small horn-like projections/bumps on the heads of giraffes, both male and female,  formed from ossified cartilage, cartilage that turns into bone.
  • Camouflage: the disguising of something to make them blend in with their surroundings in an effort to become invisible/undetectable.
  • Thud: move, fall, or strike something with a dull, heavy sound
ACTIVITY 3:
IMAGINATION AND CONVERSATION
  1. Discuss the characteristics and qualities of the giraffe. Conclude as to what the quintessential attributes of the giraffe are, which characteristic makes them unique  (height, long neck, patterns on skin?). 

  2. Invite the children to think of the giraffe as a superhero having that characteristic as its super power. Discuss how they could save the planet using their super power?  (for example, if a very long neck is their strength could they use it to observe disasters happening in the distance and ring the alarm early on? Let your imagination run wild!).

  3. Ask children to make a drawing of this Superhero

  4. Find a name for your superhero

  5. Write collectively  a short story about how they saved the planet.

  6. Role playing: invite children to assume the role of a TV journalist and ask them to present their story as a report on the evening news

ACTIVITY 1:
THE PODCAST (ZOOKEEPER Q&A)
  1. Introduction
    Introduce the animal and let the children know they are about to listen to an interview with a zookeeper from London Zoo.
  2. Play the podcast Q&A (time code: 00:00 - 07:57).
  3. Once the Q&A has finished (07:57), press pause.
  4. Discussion
    Ask the children what their favourite fact from the interview was.
ACTIVITY 2:
HABITATS

Habitats are places where animals and plants live. Ask the group what makes a good habitat for humans? What do they need to be comfortable and happy? The main components of a habitat are shelter, water, food, and space. For some animals, socialisation and play are also important. Ask the children to apply this same thinking to the giraffe, what do they need in their habitat? 

KS1

Check out this habitat worksheet from ZSL, discuss and draw the animals that you might find in these habitats.
 

ACTIVITY 3:
SOUND

Giraffes hum at a very low frequency. But what does that mean? What is the science behind it?

Sound, Soundwaves & Frequency

When something vibrates, it creates sound.  The sound travels like an invisible wave through the air, also through solids and liquids but not in a vacuum. That’s why in space, there is no sound at all, whatever you might have seen in movies!

The sound wave ripples through the air, like a wave does in the ocean, travels from the source, which is the thing that vibrates to the receiver. For humans, as for most animals, the receiver is the ear. We detect sounds using our ears.  Tiny parts of the inner ear vibrate and our brain interprets these signals as sound.  You can only hear people talking to you because sound waves have travelled from their mouth to your ears. Talking and listening means we can communicate with each other. That’s massively important!  Sound waves can be different and scientists use some special words to describe them, like:

Frequency

Frequency is how many waves the ear receives per second.  A higher frequency means more waves and lower frequency means less waves and correspondingly higher frequency means higher pitch (birds chirping, wheels squeaking, a soprano singing) and lower frequency means lower pitch (a lion’s roar, a drum, a thunder)

 

KS1

Sound Bingo 
Can you spot which one of the sounds on the board are high frequency/pitch and which ones are low frequency/pitch?

KS2 
Sound Wave Experiment: The Dancing Sugar
Prep: For this you will need your mobile phone (able to play music), a glass big enough to contain your phone, some cling film and some sugar.
This is an easy experiment to put together and a great visual for seeing how sound waves work!

  1. Put a mobile phone in a glass.  
  2. Turn on some loud music with a lot of great bass.  
  3. Cover the glass with cling film, stretch it as tightly as possible, and sprinkle some grains of sugar on top of the plastic wrap. 
  4. You will be able to see the sugar dance!  The source is the phone. The receiver is the cling film. The vibrations from the sound waves produced by the phone are making the sugar move.
  5. Try different types of music to see how this changes the movement of the sugar.
     
ACTIVITY 1:
LISTENING AND MOVING TO THE PODCAST (KS1 & 2)
  1. Warm Up
    Begin your session by inviting children into the space and proposing a simple name and movement game; in a circle ask the children to name their favourite animal and do a single move mimicking the animal. If you’re seated this can be an arm or a head movement  – you could also suggest that they can accompany the move with a sound or just do the sound alone. When everyone has shared a movement you could ask children if they can remember someone else’s dance move and get everyone to repeat.
     
  2. Introduce the theme
    Introduce the giraffe as the theme of the podcast episode you are about to listen to and have a short discussion - for example: you might talk about whether they like giraffes or not, where they have ever seen one, either live or in a book/on tv. Get them to talk about their experience. 

    Explain that you are going to join someone called Charlie on a trip to the zoo, during which they will learn about giraffes and then perform a dance inspired by that animal. It should be emphasised at the beginning that children are free to move however they want to. This is about freeing their imaginations; they can be as silly or as serious as they want – as long as they are safe. Ask children to find a space and then look around the room to notice all the obstacles or hard objects they might bump into if not careful, as well as all the other people in the room. Emphasise the need to be safe and look after each other. 

    Remind the class that they can choose how to move – these can be tiny moves, or big moves. They may choose to do their dance sitting or want to move around the space. The important thing is for them to feel how they want to move in response to what Charlie is saying, the music and the sound effects.
     
  3. Play the podcast and dance
    The podcast episode moves into the dance activity after the zookeeper Q&A. Once Charlie invites you to move, signal to the children. Joining the children in moving and dancing can help build confidence, particularly if you are not afraid to be silly yourself. Showing how you interpret the invitation to move can help to encourage more hesitant children, but try not to lead the class in following you. 

    You can also notice how some of the children are moving and encourage others to do the same, or build on and develop other options. You can repeat out loud some of the things Charlie says in the podcast to help guide the children’s movements. As Charlie does, keep the language you use open to different choices and possibilities – underling that there is no right or wrong way to respond. If a certain movement resonates particularly well with class, you can pause the podcast, elaborate a bit on that movement and then move on to the next thing.
     
  4. Discuss their experiences of dancing alongside Charlie 
    The Audiomoves at the Zoo podcasts focus on the sensory, somatic experience of movement and dance. However, discussing children’s responses after the dance is a great way to prolong the experience; sharing the different ways in which they explored and played in the session and finding the rich vocabulary to express this. Noticing the relationship between the physical sensations children experienced and feelings and emotions can help children recognise and tune into how their body and mind are one.

Some suggested questions to guide your discussion:

  • What was their favourite movement and why?
  • How did that movement make them feel?
  • How was the experience of using their body parts in a totally different way than humans do? 
  • What was it like to imagine having body parts that humans don’t have, like a super long neck?
  • How different would the world around look and feel if you were a giraffe? Seeing the world from up high must change things a great deal!
  • Which of the giraffe's qualities (for example  long neck, low-pitch voice) do they wish they had, and how would they use it in their everyday life?
    You can ask the children to share how they would move in this case and things they would do. You can further suggest that everyone in the class try out these moves, and then try out different and/or contrasting ways that others would do the same thing. For instance, one might choose to have a voice that humans can’t hear to safely exchange secrets with their friends and another to be able to play with siblings without waking up the parents? 

Movement Verb list 

  • Stretch out 
  • Reach
  • Extend
  • Curl
  • Chew
  • Circling
  • Oscillate
  • Lean
  • Tilt
  • Interlock
  • Bend
Arts Council EnglandLondon Zoo, a ZSL conservation zoo