The Erie Traveling Zoo visited Rainbow Corner Preschool on Thursday.

The program, led by Amy Heisler, the zoo’s offgrounds coordinator, and Donna Christensen, volunteer educator, was called 1, 2, 3 Count With Me and revolved around the book “Mouse Count,” by Ellen Stoll Walsh.

Rainbow Corner preschoolers listened to the story and practiced counting with five animal visitors including a ball python, chicken, lizard, Madagascar hissing cockroach and tarantula. The students learned facts about each animal and practiced number concepts by counting the number of legs on each animal.  

The Erie Traveling Zoo enables students to go beyond the limits of a book and allows them to see, hear and touch animals and artifacts while learning at the same time. The zoo visit is incorporated into the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) curriculum at Rainbow Corner with zoo-themed activities, stories and games.

“The Erie Traveling Zoo’s visit is a wonderful complement to our STEM curriculum, specifically focusing on math and science,” said Kimberly Engstrom, M.Ed., preschool director. “With zoo-themed math and science activities in the classroom like measuring, graphing and learning about habitats, students have been encouraged to think, explore and problem-solve, all while having fun.”

Rainbow Corner Preschool is operated by CARE for Children and provides early childhood education for children ages 3-5. It is located at the Ashley Booth Griffin CARE for Children Center in Bradford.