When we were in Sydney recently we were fortunate to be invited to breakfast at Taronga Zoo as part of the PR campaign launching the zoo’s new iPhone app, Monkey Mayhem.
… and owls…
… and snakes!
Making new friends…
… and falling in love… with seals. Two in particular – Marley and Murphy!
… and let’s not forget, having a play on the new zoo app!
I must admit when I first thought about the idea of kids and an iPhone to enjoy the zoo, I thought, what??? I don’t think so!!! After all, Immy and the children I have worked with have always found great enjoyment in simply visiting the zoo and seeing the animals. Having given the app a go however, I can see how it can be used as a tool for extending the experience, especially when it comes to engaging children with factual information.
Basically, the app invites the child to help Marley, whose mother is a Zoo Keeper, to recreate the missing pages of the all-important-Zoo Manual as without it no one knows what to do. Using the iPhone’s GPS the child can navigate their way around Taronga using the interactive map, and using the iPhone’s camera to take photos of nominated animals and placing them in the manual. Once they have placed the photos on the right page hidden content is unlocked and the child is rewarded with audio snippets of animal noises, videos and secret notes (information about the animal). Within the Zoo Manual there are six categories of animals to find – In To Africa, Garden Buddies, Primates, Aussie Mates, In The Jungle and Under Water.
I can especially see it as a nice way to capture a zoo visit for children to revisit after the fact, Immy particularly enjoyed listening to the animal noises over the following days 🙂
Monkey Mayhem is available as a free download for iPhone on iTunes.
Thanks to the generosity of Taronga Zoo, I have FIVE family passes (2 adults, 2 kids) to Taronga Zoo to give away – look at that, a chance to test out the app yourself!! Each pass is valued at $108.80 and valid till August 2011, so if you are planning to be in Sydney anytime soon and think a family day at the zoo is on your agenda, enter below by;
1. Leaving a comment below telling me which is your (or your child’s) favourite animal to visit at the zoo!
2. Giveaway open to Australian residents only (sorry overseas readers!)
3. Entries close 6pm (WA time), Friday, 22nd October, 2010.
4. The winner will be chosen randomly.
4. Passes will be forwarded to the winners by Taronga Zoo.
THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED
And the winners are;
16 – Mummy Manda
6 – Erin
18 – Weilita
8 – Ally
4 – Butterfly Mama
Please email me at burnettmc [at] gmail [dot] com with your full name and address details.
Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.
In our family the kids LOVE visiting the orang utangs. Taronga Zoo is on my list of places to visit when we are in Sydney with the offspring in a few weeks.
We'd love to visit Sydney :D
My girls have discovered a love of Tigers recently, which is wonderful for me as they are my favourite animal of all time. They love the noise they make and how they look and act a bit like our cat, Paws.
Does trains count as animals...? No? Well, my little man loved the chimps. And Daisy was very fond of the giraffe, as I think you saw- she gave him a pat on the nose!
I love the elephants myself.
I haven't taken my boys to Taronga Zoo in Sydney but they loved Taronga Western Plains when they were two.
We went to Featherdale last year at 3 and they loved watching the Fairy penguins.They love penguins of any kind.
There is something about a Zebras bottom, it is the coolest thing to take pictures of. All those stripes just work!
:)