Lockdown lessons for children provided by Northumberland Zoo

The zoo would like to encourage children of all ages to tune in and continue to learn about animals and nature-topics even though the zoo and schools are currently closed due to Covid-19.

The free lessons are made available via the Zoo’s Youtube Channel every Monday morning and they cover a range of topics from habitats and adaptations, to the role of the zookeeper as well as conservation. Each lesson will also include an activity that the children can do at home.

Zoo curator, Maxine Bradley, said: “We understand that parents and families will be struggling during this lockdown to provide home education lessons.

“We have adapted to find an alternative way to showcase the 500 animals that are living here and continue to educate people, as that is our main mission.”

The zoo would normally welcome local schools in during normal times for these lessons, but as an alternative, they are hoping to ‘bring the zoo to you’ with these virtual sessions.

They would like as many children to get involved and are even inviting teachers to include the sessions in their school timetables for remote learning.

Maxine added: “The sessions are aimed at primary school pupils, however, we want to encourage learners of all ages to take part and learn about our amazing animals.”

In addition to the educational videos, the zoo has also introduced ‘Story time at the Zoo’, where every Saturday evening, a zookeeper reads a different popular children’s story, animal-themed of course.

For more information, email [email protected].

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