In 2010 Charlotte Dincher (Germany) invented something for middle and elementary kids and shared it with us here on the blog. It scrolled out but some will remember it. I’m reposting it here. It’s called a Wall Zoo. It is a blue chip idea that can be used in any way we see fit in our classrooms. The process requires some L1 use to get started – that is just fine.
Charlotte describes her idea:
“The Wall Zoo was actually a bail out move, as I had forgotten my other materials at home. I gave the kids white paper and asked them to fold it in half and draw an animal there. Then I asked each student in L1 which animal he or she wanted to draw. They threw out the names of various animals and I wrote them on the board and circled a little bit on some of the animals. Then I asked “Who will draw the fox?” etc.
“Then it was on to drawing. I helped the students who felt they had serious trouble drawing by giving them some tips on the blackboard. That worked very well for us. Also, one of our students is called the “animal explorer” and he ALWAYS carries his favorite book, an animal encyclopedia, so we used that for reference, too. (This was great for him, as he a poor and scrawny kid whose mom forbids him to read at night because of the energy costs. In our classroom, he is the go-to expert on animals. I’ve never seen more authority among students.) Fast students drew two animals.
“Then, as the students were finishing, they would write the name of the animal underneath in capital letters and cut it out with the name as the base. That also worked very well.
“Then I put the animals on the wall. My class is not too big (26 students) so we just huddle up in front of the zoo for PQA.
“Here’s a selection of questions/commands that I used:
1. Point to this animal: F-R-O-G (they’re beginners, so they usually need about three letters till they get it)
2. Does a penguin eat fish or hamsters?
3. What is next to the giraffe?
4. How many big cats (lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, pumas – um, yes, we had them all) are there?
5. Does a parrot have feathers/a tail?
6. Does a giraffe live in Europe?
7. Do cockroaches live in the sea or on the land?
8. Does Sarah like cockroaches or rabbits?
9. Does the polar bear live in Alaska or in Africa?
10. Does the shark eat the penguin?
11. Does the giraffe live with the fish?
12. Do you like frogs?
etc.
“Students’ favorite:
How many legs do four penguins, three fish and one polar bear have?
“This went on for days. The students never grew tired of talking about the zoo.
“Then I wrote up a short story script, but before sharing it with the kids I wanted to TPR these verbs, which we had done earlier in the year but I wanted them to know them for the story:
finds
carries
says
puts
will eat
zoo
“Friedrich finds a penguin in the park. He carries it to the zoo. Anna is at the zoo. Friedrich says to Anna: “Put the penguin with the lion!” Anna says: “No, the the lion will eat the penguin!”
“In the end, Anna accepts the idea. You can’t believe how proud the kids were of their stories of R2-D2 finding a Wookie for the zoo, or stereotypically, a girl who finds a unicorn and puts it with the Pegasus. I just let them come up with whatever endings they wanted. Needless to say, we got lots of repetitions because we ended up doing the same story at least ten times in each class.
“Two students wanted to act out their story with stuffed toys. Needless to say, I’m proud of them, too. Also, I learned a lot myself. I had to look up the names of several rarer animals and I had no clue that hedgehogs eat mice. My students loved to teach me!”