Its fun visiting the zoo. But you can have even more fun making one. Heres how you can create your own little zoo.
For your zoo, gather a big board (or a wide sheet of thick cardboard), soil, mustard or fenugreek seeds.

Find a place to keep the board undisturbed. Lay out an inch or two of damp soil on the board and sprinkle the seeds where you want the greenery to show. Allow the seeds to grow for a couple of days. Keep sprinkling water to keep the soil damp.

For animals, get thin cardboard, markers and glue.

Draw an outline of an animal on the cardboard.

The trick here is to make the limbs of the animals thicker and longer than usual. Now make a carbon copy of the animal and stick the two copies one on top of the other, making sure you stick the complete body and only the upper half of the limbs. The lower half of the limbs can be turned outwards (you will have four flaps to turn out) to enable your animal to stand. Colour it and add details.

For cages and enclosures, you will need fevicol, toothpicks and icecream sticks.

Some animals can go into cages and bigger ones in enclosures.

Lay out five toothpicks vertically one beside the other with some gap between them. Lay two toothpicks horizontally across the five (with some gap between the two) and stick with fevicol. This will form one side of a cage. If you need a wider side, make more panels and stick them together. Make enough for all four sides. Make as many cages as you need.

To make enclosures, cut the icecream sticks into half. Insert them (rounded side up) into the soil to form a circle or rectangle, and put your animal inside.

Put your animals, cages and enclosures amid the greenery you created, and set up your zoo. Invite your friends to visit.

– Anitha Bennett