Sensory Music Story - Day Out at the Zoo

This 'Sensory and Music Story' has been designed to be used by a parent/carer and child at home, or as part of an Online Music Therapy session, led by a Music therapist.

Hints and Tips

Gather all the props before you start. if you do not have everything exactly, don't worry - any improvisations are fine!
Familiarise yourself with the story and what happens where. Think how you will use the props and songs to make the most impact and sense to the child you are working with.
It is natural to feel self-conscious about singing, but there are no 'X-Factor' style judgements being made about your voice! if you can sing with more confidence and volume then that will make more of an impact - it does not matter if you are out of tune (or think you are!).
If you have other small instruments at home, you may want to use these with the child you are working with during the songs.
Read the story slowly, repeating the parts of the story that has just been read when feeling the relevant props. If your child is responsive to a certain part - or you know from previous experience that they will enjoy something - then stay longer with that prop or song.

Props

Bin bag

Rain coat / umbrella

Leaves

Any zoo animals!

Water - spray or container to feel / splash

Rainstick, drum

Scarf / wafty material

Furry fabric / soft toy to feel

Chimes / bells

Any other musical instruments

Music links

Ladybird (ladybug!) scarf song

Twinkle twinkle - Makaton (Mr Tumble)

Relaxing Jungle animal sounds

Relaxing rain and gentle thunder sounds

Click here for song lyrics

A Day Out - At the Zoo

It was a lovely sunny day, so we decided to go to the zoo!

What will we need to take?

Feel: Food for the animals, raincoat / umbrella in the bag

We all got in the van together and set off!

Sing: 'We're all going to the zoo today'

It was so exciting to get to the zoo... What is your favourite animal? I wonder if it is one we will see today?

First of all, we went to see the giraffes! The giraffes have got really looooong necks. They love to eat leaves, so the zoo keeper let us feed the giraffes the leaves we had brought with us!

Feel: Feel / stretch neck, and reach up high with the leaves to feed to the giraffe!

Which animal will we find next? I could hear some heavy stamping... and some trumpeting! What do you think it is? It was the elephants, with their long trunks and their big flappy ears! I wonder if any of them are called Nellie?

Sing: Nellie the Elephant - and stamp along!

The elephants were spraying out water from their trunks - it went a long way and we started to get wet!

Feel: Flick / spray some water!

We thought all the spray we could feel was from the elephants - but no! It had started to rain! We put our umbrellas up and rain coats on, and splashed through the growing puddles as fast we could to the nearest indoor section!

Feel: Cover up with a raincoat or umbrella

Play/Listen: Listen to the recording of rain sounds and play along with a rainstick or similar, with occasional claps of thunder on a drum, getting louder then quieter.

I wonder what is going to be inside here? We peeked in and... it was the Insect House! We had seen some of the biggest animals - and how here were some of the smallest! There were some tiny ladybirds, with their red and black wings, and fireflies, bees, ants and grasshoppers - which meant we could even see some zoo animals in the garden at home!

Sing: I have a little ladybird - scarf song

Sing: The Insect Song

Fortunately the rain stopped and we could carry on outside, visiting lots of the other animals, such as...

Sing: If you're a Monkey and you Know it...

Near the way out was the 'Familiar Friends' where we could go and actually stroke some of the smaller animals! There was a friendly guinea pig who was fluffy and furry to pet!

Feel: Stroke some furry material / a fluffy soft toy

We went out through my favourite part - the shop! Soon it was time to get back in the van. When we got home, it was already dark and the stars were out, twinkling above us. Thank you for fun day out!

Sing: Twinkle Twinkle - play chimes or bells