Room 9: The needs and wants of plants and animals: a closer observation at the Calgary Zoo

We have been exploring the concept of needs vs wants in ourselves, our school community, and our home community. The class came to the conclusion that “needs” are necessary for survival and “wants” are things that are just for fun.

At the Calgary zoo, some grade one’s noticed the large plants floating in the conservatory had very tiny spikes, which they thought might be a need so it doesn’t get eaten! Students were excited and hopeful to see butterflies but discovered that they no longer were at the zoo because of cold temperatures and the flowers would not produce enough pollen or nutrients for butterfly survival.

A rare sight to see! A baby gorilla was born in April and came out to play on the day of our visit. Many students thought they acted just like humans.

“That baby gorilla is fighting with his mom and is being naughty. It’s not listening.” ~grade one student

As we continued on our field study, we stopped to do some sketching and write down thoughts on the needs of the gorillas.