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Roosevelt Park Zoo Tots classes teach kids about animal friends

Submitted Photo Lucas Sabrosky plays on a pretend pond catching frogs during a Roosevelt Park Zoo Tot class themed “Mighty Hoppers.”

Tots might get a chance to catch frogs in a pretend pond, check out the inside of a turtle shell or explore the trees during Roosevelt Park Zoo’s Tot class.

Nicole Barnhart, education, conservation and outreach coordinator at the Minot zoo, said the classes are for ages 2-5. Barnhart and Sarah Peterson, zoo educator, conduct the classes from January to April. Each class is an hour in length.

“We do them three weeks of the month on Thursdays and Fridays,” Barnhart said.

She said tots can be signed up for one class at a time or for all the classes.

“A parent stays with them and helps kind of play and interact with the kids,” she said. She said if tots want to play on their own, they are welcome to do that as well.

Submitted Photo A participant, center, in a Roosevelt Park Zoo Tot class about exploring turtles checks out the inside of a turtle shell. Nicole Barnhart, education, conservation and outreach coordinator at the zoo, is shown in center back.

“But we do ask a parent to stay,” Barnhart said.

Barnhart started Tot classes at the zoo.

“I feel like people in our community always are looking for things to do for those younger kids that maybe aren’t in preschool or aren’t in school full time just yet,” Barnhart said, adding, “It’s a great way to get out of the house.”

The cost is $9 for a one-hour class.

There’s also a cooking class. The $11 cost for this class is slightly higher to cover the cost of the food.

“They don’t necessarily cook but they turn their food into animal-inspired creations,” she said. She said there is no stove cooking involved.

“When they come to a class they will get to meet one of our ambassador animals,” Barnhart said. The zoo has several ambassador animals including a prairie dog, a hedgehog, armadillo, snakes, tortoises, skink, rabbit, frogs and ferret.

“We set up stations where the kids can play at and oftentimes there’s a craft – lots of hands-on type activities for the kids. We try to focus on activities to let the kids explore on their own or in different ways but the activity can be used multiple ways for different age groups. If someone comes with a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old, both can interact with the same activity but just differently,” Barnhart said.

For example, at a zookeeper class planned for March, Barnhart said the tots’ activities will be to prepare diets for the animals.

“They’ll follow a pretend menu for a bear or cats and they’ll make up food for that animal. It’s all play food so they’ll pretend like they’re keepers and make a diet. They’ll get a chance where they can interact with stuffed animals and do checkups on those animals as well since our keepers do a lot of that on our animals to make sure that they’re nice and healthy,” Barnhart said. At this class they’ll probably also have some type of craft for the kids to do as well.

“Normally we have around four to five stations set up that they can visit and explore at their own pace,” Barnhart said. If the weather is nice, they will go out in the zoo and see the animals or at least some of them.

Anyone interested in registering for the classes for their tot or tots can sign up anytime online at rpzoo.com. Up to 12 tots, each one accompanied by one parent, can participate in a class.

“We do allow people to bring an infant with them so if they have, for example, a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old, they can certainly bring the other child with them without paying for that child,” Barnhart said.

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