Language Activity

Indoor language activity in the Fruit Bat Forest exhibit.

The Fruit Bat Forest houses three bat species, together with a number of other species.  The exhibit is immersive and is set at low light levels.

This activity encourages pupils to consider what the bats and their habitat look like by using describing words to explore what they experience in the Fruit Bat Forest. 

This encourages pupils to think about a wide range of language that they can use to describe what they see, using a certain amount of detail and precision. 

It also encourages pupils to think about where bats live, why they are active at night and how they move.

Curriculum Links

KS1 English: EN1 Speaking and Listening, EN3 Writing

Resources required in the zoo: Teachers may require a pen and paper to write down the describing words for future use back in the classroom.  This could also be recorded in an audio format.

Bat poem  – this can be used as an introduction to bats.  It contains many words to describe bats and can act as a starting point for the class in the Fruit Bat Forest. 

Things to do in school beforehand: Download the bat poem, read the poem and highlight the words used to describe the bats.

Discuss with the pupils what they think a bat exhibit at the Zoo may look and feel like.

Things to do in school afterwards: Compare pupils’ expectations of the exhibit before the visit with what the Fruit Bat Forest was actually like during the visit.

The describing words that pupils thought of while in the exhibit could be used to create a poem or a story about their experience.

Teachers’ information sheet