Ethan, Elise, Caleb & Ava

Go to a Magical Zoo

When you went to the Como Zoo, what did you see?

When most children go to a zoo, they want to see….

a very, very big…..

or a very, very fierce…..

And, some children like things that crawl around on the ground like a….

or creatures that sit in the water looking for something to eat like a….

But what if one day, Ethan and Elise said to Caleb and Ava, “Would you

like to go to a magical zoo? Caleb would probably ask, “What’s a magical

zoo, Ethan and Elise?” Ava would just sit there smiling and waiting for

their answer.

Ethan would probably smile and say, “Well, a magical zoo is not what you

might expect. It is somewhere the animals play tricks on you. Let’s ask

mom to take us to a magical zoo.”

To The Zoo

So, mom drove Ethan, Elise, Caleb and Ava to the magical zoo while their

daddy worked really hard at his job. He wished he could have gone too.

When mom, Ethan, Elise, Caleb and Ava got to the zoo, they ran inside and

here is the first animal they saw.

“What is it,” asked Caleb? “What do you think it is,”

said Elise? “That’s easy,” said Ethan. “It’s a

bullfrog!”

Next, mom took Ethan, Elise, Caleb and Ava

into the bird section of the zoo.

“Do you recognize this bird, Caleb?”

asked Elise?

“It’s different than the birds I see outside our

house” said Caleb with a puzzled look on his

face.

“That’s because it is a birddog” said Elise.

“Are there any other magical dogs, Ethan?” asked Caleb. Their mom took

their hands and walked into another part of the zoo.

“Oh look,” said Caleb excitedly. “I see a dog,” he said, then

stopped with a strange look on his face.

There was something different

about this dog.

“What’s different, Caleb?” Ethan

asked.

“Papa told me this dog was an

Irish Eagle,” said Elise. “He

knows a lot of strange things.”

“Would you like to see another

dog?” asked Ethan.

This time, Ava eagerly nodded

her head up and down. She could not talk yet but she understood a lot.

So away they went to the next cage and here is what they saw:

“What is this animal? Is it a dog or is it a

sheep? asked Caleb.

“In the country where Nana was born,

Caleb, there are millions of sheep. This is

a special dog that takes care of them.

Papa says it is a sheepdog,” said Ethan.

“Oh, now I understand,” said Caleb.

The rest of the morning, Ethan, Elise, Caleb and Ava along with their mom

walked through the magical zoo. Here are some more animals they saw.

Can you name them correctly?

“Are there any animals from where

Nana grew up, Ethan?” asked Caleb.

“Why yes, Caleb, I think there are two

from Australia. Let’s go look.”

They rounded the corner and Ava

squealed with delight at what they all saw.

What are these strange and wonderful Australia creatures?

That’s right. They are kangaroo rats.

“One more surprise for all of you today,” mom said. “Let’s go look out in

the zoo yard to see Nana.”

And so Ethan, Elise and Caleb ran outside leaving their eager little sister

Ava behind to crawl painfully on the sidewalk to see where they were

going.

They were all eager to see their Nana because she usually had lots of stuff

for them that they didn’t need.

Nana had surprised them. They thought Nana was going to stay home and

eat chocolates but here she was.

Was she going to be sitting at a picnic table with some food for them?

But when they got outside, they all screeched to a stop.

There she was…..

what in the world

was Nana riding?

All the way home, Ethan, Elise, Caleb and even little Ava tried to name the

animal Nana had been riding.

What was the right name?

Was it a hemu?

Was it a horsmu?

Or was it an eorse?

What do you think?