Just Like Me -- KCZoo Preschool Program

Preschoolers like to get their hands on many different things. Well, in our program called “Just Like Me” we try to exercise all of their five senses. A story is used to focus the preschoolers’ attention and then compare our five senses to unique animal senses. Like this chinchilla pictured. We are focusing on the sight sense. Chinchillas have huge eyes to see well at night when they are normally awake.

Make Less Trash

In our after school program, the topic of the day focused on the 3 Rs. The first is reduce, by purchasing products that have less packaging we are creating less trash. The second is reuse, when we reuse things like clothes or toys by donating them to Goodwill or better yet purchasing from thrift stores we cut down on new clothes and toys that need to be made. And the final R stands for recycling. Our after school students were very familiar with recycling and how important it is to help cut down on trash that goes into landfills. To celebrate recycling, we made trash mobiles with some discarded items. Just in case you were wondering, we did clean everything before our students began creating their masterpieces.

Toad Breeding at the Kansas City Zoo

Two years ago, the Kansas City Zoo joined up with a small group of other zoos who are devoted to helping the Wyoming Toads. These toads were declared extinct in the wild and this dedicated group has spent the last decade breeding and reintroducing toads and tadpoles back into their native habitat.

The keepers at the Kansas City Zoo started the breeding process with the toads held here. For the next month, several pairs will spend time in an induced hibernation. After this time, the toads will come out of their hibernation, and spend a few days eating before mating. Hopefully, this breeding will be successful and tadpoles from the toads at our zoo can be sent back up to Wyoming to be released.