Role-Play in the Science Classroom

The activity shared here is an animal role-playing lesson developed, field-tested, and refined for "Nature's Neighborhood", a newly designed children's education facility at the Toledo Zoo. The activity is targeted at students in kindergarten through second grade, but it can be adapted for use in grades three and four as well. Through students' interactions with others during the role-play and discussions afterward, the understanding that animals need, among other things, food, water, and shelter to survive is reinforced. (Contains 2 figures.)