Create your own ocean creature that can move, swim, act and even dance… if you wanted it to. This page will show you how to make a puppet for all your underwater plays. Watch our Young Zoologists Puppet show for ideas: You will need: If you have a printer, print and use our activity sheet to make your crafting easier: Top tip: use a sharp … Continue reading Create an ocean creature puppet
Gather up your blankets, sheets and cushions to build a nest fit for a dormouse. Join the Museum of Zoology to discover how dormice create a cosy winter hide-away and have a go at creating your own giant nest, big enough for you to take a nap in. Dicover more about dormice nest building behaviour from The People’s Trust for Endangered Species: Can dormouse nests reveal more about their … Continue reading Build a Dormouse Den
Everyone likes to experience the surprise of opening a gift from a loved one. Over the holiday period the United Kingdom alone throws away enough wrapping paper to reach the moon! That’s a lot of gift-giving but also a lot of waste. Last year we shared how you can create recyclable festival wrapping paper at home to help save on landfill waste. This year, we’re … Continue reading Winter Wildlife: Colourful Present Wraps
Our Young Zoologists Club members have been busy creating a waxwing irruption to feature in our Winter Wildlife: ZoologiCOOL livestream on December 1st. Why not make one yourselves at home and join in when you see these models flapping on screen. They are quite simple to make and don’t require any special materials or equipment. Just download the template and follow the instructions below to … Continue reading Winter Wildlife: Wonderful Waxwings
Did you make a rainforest with us last summer? With the end of the summer holidays coming, why not relive seaside memories and make your own rockpool habitat out of recycled materials? We have some inspiration and ideas for you here, but you can let your imagination run wild and make creatures from crabs to sea anemones, starfish to periwinkles… Read on to discover rockpool … Continue reading Recycled Rockpool
Volunteer Natasha says: This quick and easy little crochet shell is a brilliant way to use up those leftover scraps of yarn and would look great as a decorative addition to any crafty project, like on a cosy blanket or hanging on a mobile! You can use any fibre/material yarn of your choice but be aware that thicker yarns will produce larger shells and the … Continue reading Crochet a Nautilus: beginners guide
This year for Zoology Live and in celebration of our summer exhibition Breaking Point, we are challenging you to take part in a Protest Plastics challenge. There’s a few ways to get involved, from creating a Protest Plastics sculpture to pledging to swap a plastic item. Please note that our Protest Plastics Challenge 2021 competition has now ended. You can still create a sculpture of … Continue reading Protest Plastics Challenge 2021
Deep-sea anglerfish live in the deep, dark areas of the world’s oceans and are named for the way that they attract a meal. Much like a fishing (angler) rod would entice a fish using bait or a lure, the female anglerfish houses bacteria in and around the end of a long fin ray. This bacteria glows in the gloom of the deep sea and attracts … Continue reading Twilight at Home: Anglerfish
There’s lots of animals to be found in the Museum of Zoology. Our Young Zoologists Club members show and tell you about their favourites and welcome you to explore the collection online and create your own. Download the trail and then use the links below to explore the collection online. Choose your creature to fill in the trail gaps! Delve into the collections online to … Continue reading On the Trail of a Creature…
This week we celebrate International Sloth Day (20th October) with a mossy mate that will hang from almost anywhere. Sloths are known for being a laid back mammal; feeding exclusively on leaves and moving rather slowly through the rainforest canopys of South and Central America. What you might not know about sloths is that many species live in symbiosis (mutally beneficial relationship) with mosses and … Continue reading A Slumber of Sloths
Rhinos are big herbivores (plant-eaters) that have a huge impact on their habitat, by spreading around seeds and walking through, pushing and shoving the vegetation, which helps other animals in their environments. They have also had a big impact on human culture, appearing in all sorts of art for at least 700 years! There are five species of rhinos alive today, but sadly four of … Continue reading A ‘crash’ of rhinoceroses
Build a mini-habitat using a cardboard box and recyclable materials from around your home. The guide below will give you some ideas to get you started, but the rest is up to you! You will need: Cardboard box Old magazines, greetings cards, scrap paper. Pens or pencils Scissors Glue Once you have gathered all of your materials, watch the video below for museum learning assistant, … Continue reading Habitat in-a-box
The okapi is the only living relative of giraffes and looking closer you can see the similarities. It has camouflaging body patterns, large ears and the males have stout horns above the eyes (ossicones). They even have a similar long, prehensile (meaning that it can grasp things) tongue, just like a giraffe. This helps them to quickly strip leaves from tree branches. They are however, … Continue reading Okapi? Okapi!
Join artist Kaitlin Ferguson as she talks you through how to Look, Copy, and Make with the Museum of Zoology’s fin whale skeleton. You will need: Paper Pens or pencils Scissors Kaitlin’s whale tail template Video of fin whale skeleton: https://youtu.be/CEb2UyXZq_w These activities can be enjoyed by anyone and have been made with young people with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) in mind. See … Continue reading Look Copy Make – Fin Whale
Welcome back to our online Zoology Live festival. Continuing our celebration of all things insects and invertebrate, today we will be exploring insects on the wing. Join us TODAY at 4pm when we will have new films and LIVE interviews with Museum Research Assistant Matthew Hayes, who will he sharing butterfly-spotting tips with us, and dragonfly expert Duncan Mackay, here to answer you questions about … Continue reading Zoology Live Day 2: Minibeasts part 2
Museum of Zoology Blog 