Earth Day is this Sunday! What better way to celebrate than taking a trip to the zoo? Starting this weekend the Bronx Zoo’s Animal Tales Extravaganza Kicks Off ! The event sounds like so much fun and a fantastic opportunity to get your kids interested in the importance of wildlife conservation.
Saturday April 21st – Sunday April 22nd, on the “Mainstage” children can enjoy a high-energy, interactive live performance featuring songs, games, storybook readings, fun dances and lots of audience participation with Curious George at 11:30am, 1:30pm, and 3:30pm adjacent to Grizzly Bears.
There is also the Meet & Greet with Yo Gabba Gabba! event happening this weekend where kids can interact with the loveable and fun characters from the show including Brobee, Toodee and Foofa from the rockin’ pre-school series, between 12:30pm and 2:30pm located at the Dancing Crane Plaza.
Here are the full details about the Animal Tales Extravaganza upcoming attractions.
Animal Tales Extravaganza returns to the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo for the third year, on weekends from Saturday, April 21 through Sunday, June 30. And Animal Tales Extravaganza is included with your zoo admission!
Each weekend of Animal Tales Extravaganza includes an array of activities for families and children. The zoo’s Dancing Crane Pavilion will be transformed into an intimate story time corner, presented by Plum Organics. Zoo-goers can take a break and read from a wide variety of animal-themed books from Simon & Schuster, Candlewick Press, and Hyperion. Children can then stage their own animal tale with a puppet they create at the Bright Horizons Early Education & Preschools crafts area.
In addition, this year features a special production – Avenue ZOO – featuring a guest appearance by Kate Monster, the beloved puppet star of the Tony Award-winning musical AVENUE Q.
Running each weekend on the zoo’s Asia Plaza Stage, Avenue ZOO highlights the importance of wildlife conservation in a fun, entertaining way. It is a musical tale in which Kate Monster meets exotic animals and discovers that though they may seem strange and different, they are not as scary as she thought. Avenue ZOO performances willbe at 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. each weekend from Saturday, April 21 through Sunday, Sept. 9.
Also, the main stage has something for everyone throughout the spring season. Highlights of this season’s main stage entertainment include:
Happening Every Weekend
Avenue Zoo
12:30 and 2:30 at Asia Plaza Stage
Join Kate Monster on her trip from off Broadway’s Avenue Q to the Bronx Zoo’s Avenue Zoo! Kate’s musical journey begins when she misses her stop home, and ends up on Avenue ZOO. Experience the fun of her wild adventure as she meets different animals along the way and learns that their differences aren’t so scary after all.
Rainforest Creature Parade*
1:00pm and 3:00pm leaving from 4D Theater
Join Annie Hickman’s Rainforest Creatures and the Art of Motion dancers as they parade through the park in fantastic sculptural costumes. This incredible parade will weave together basketry, costumes, sculpture, movement, dance, and the world of nature, which is brought to life through graceful dance.
* Rainforest Parade will not take place April 28-29 or June 16-17, 24-25, 30
Yoga Animal Poses with Lil Yogis NYC
1:15, 2:15, 3:15 on Astor Court
Join us on the Astor Court lawn to enjoy animal-themed children’s yoga sessions. Kids will practice different yoga poses –all related to animals- that encourage creativity and relaxation- Adults welcome too! Ends weekend of June 17
Crafts
11am-3pm at Dancing Crane Cafe Plaza
Create your own fantastical wildlife puppets and choose from a giraffe, lemur, peacock, alligator and lion. After the puppets are complete, kids will be encouraged to head over to the Animal Tales Story Time Corner and use our puppet stage to create their own Animal Tale. Ends weekend of June 24.
Animal Tales Story Time Corner
Presented by Plum Organics
11am – 3pm at Dancing Crane Cafe Plaza
Plum Organics transforms a portion of our Dancing Crane Café Pavilion into an intimate Story Time corner filled with comfy chairs, books and activities. Relax in this custom Animal Tales area with your little ones to take a break from your busy day. Guests can choose to sit and read from a wide variety of books provided by our publishers or bring your craft area puppets to life at our interactive puppet stage!
Ends weekend of June 24.
Special Weekend Entertainment
April 21st and April 22nd
Mainstage: Storybook Fun with Curious George
Enjoy a high-energy, interactive live performance featuring songs, games, storybook readings, fun dances and lots of audience participation with one of today’s most popular storybook characters!
11:30am, 1:30pm, and 3:30pm Adjacent to Grizzly Bears
Meet & Greet with Yo Gabba Gabba!
Meet Brobee, Toodee and Foofa from the rockin’. pre-school series Yo Gabba Gabba!
12:30pm and 2:30pm at Dancing Crane Plaza
April 28th and April 29th
Mainstage: Marvel’s Avengers Save the Planet
“Marvel Avengers Save the Planet will teach children and their families about the importance of “Going Green” and protecting the environment. Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and HULK will come together to discuss ways to conserve energy, recycle, live a green lifestyle and take actions to help protect our waters, habitats and wildlife. There could not be a better way to illustrate the importance of saving the environment than by having the Marvel Avengers showing families and children ways to protect the environment.
11:30am, 1:30pm, and 3:30pm Adjacent to Grizzly Bears
Meet Marvel’s Avengers
12:30pm and 2:30pm at Dancing Crane Plaza
TM & © 2011 Marvel & Subs.
May 5th and May 6th
Mainstage: We Did It! With Dora & Diego
Meet everyone’s favorite explorers LIVE and in person as they embark upon their next exciting adventure. The “We Did It” show is a fun-filled interactive performance with lots of opportunity for audience members to sing and dance along with Dora and Diego.
11:30am, 1:30pm, and 3:30pm Adjacent to Grizzly Bears
Meet Dora & Diego
12:00pm and 2:00pm at Stage
May 12th and May 13th
Mainstage: Sprout’s Lazytown
Meet Sportacus, LazyTown’s slightly-above-average hero who inspires the kids of LazyTown to be active and helps them along the way. However, Robbie Rotten, the silly resident villain, is intent on keeping LazyTown…lazy. Kids will get a chance to get active with Sportacus as he does engages the audience in interactive exercises, and then shows off some of his own gymnastic abilities!
11:30am, 1:30pm, and 3:30pm Adjacent to Grizzly Bears
Meet and Greet Sportacus
12:00pm and 2:00pm At Stage
May 19th and May 20th
Mainstage: Choo-Choo Soul with Genevieve!
Travel to exotic lands where kids can experience different dances that are unique to specific cultures and can rock to the beat of this urban music sensation as seen on Disney Junior.
Don’t miss the chance to sing and dance along to favorite original Choo Choo Soul songs, including “Fly Birdie Fly”, “Animal Sounds” and “Dance like a Chicken”
11:30am, 1:30pm, and 3:30pm Adjacent to Grizzly Bears
Meet Elephant & Piggie
12:00pm and 2:00pm in Astor Court
May 26th and May 27th
Mainstage: Sid the Science Kid: Science is Everywhere!
From the magic of The Jim Henson Company comes this brand new, incredible experience featuring Sid the Science Kid! Sid appears in fast paced, interactive, fun sing-along show that is guaranteed to entertain!
11:30am, 1:30pm, and 3:30pm in Adjacent to Grizzly Bears
Meet Buddy the Dinosaur from Dinosaur Train
12:00pm and 2:00pm in Astor Court
June 2nd
Mainstage: Music Unites Youth Choir of Women’s Academy of Excellence with The Naked Brothers Band – the Music Unites Youth Choir of Women’s Academy of Excellence salutes wildlife through song with Nat and Alex Wolff of Naked Brothers Band – formerly on NIckelodeon. 12:30pm, 2:00pm
June 2nd and June 3rd
Mainstage: Ferdinand the Bull
A gentle bull, that prefers the aroma of wild flowers to fighting, is mistakenly chosen to face a matador after an unfortunate bee incident… and that’s just the beginning!
Presented by The Children’s Theatre Company at Lehman College
11:30am, 1:30pm, and 3:30pm Adjacent to Grizzly Bears
Meet Maisy Mouse
Meet Maisy, a colorful, lovable mouse with a nose for adventure. There’s a Maisy book just right for every child
12:00pm and 2:00pm at Astor Court
Maisy is a registered trademark of Walker Books, London.
June 3 ONLY
Olympic Champion Kristi Yamaguchi reading her book “It’s a Big World, Little Pig”
1:00 Asia Plaza Stage
June 9th and June 10th
Mainstage: Barney™ Sing-Along
Join in the excitement as with your favorite purple, fun-loving dinosaur, Barney, performs some of your favorite Barney & Friends songs along with high energy dancing.
11:30am, 1:30pm, and 3:30pm in Adjacent to Grizzly Bears
June 9 ONLY
Children’s author Laura Hulbert reading “Who has these feet?”
1:00 Asia Plaza Stage
June 10th ONLY
The Magic School Bus
The Magic School bus visits the Bronx Zoo! Step inside this magical ride and meet Mrs. Frizzle during special Magic School Bus storytime readings.
Throughout the day on Astor Court
June 16th and June 17th
Mainstage: Super Sprowtz
Super Sprowtz is a children’s education and entertainment media company that teaches and promotes healthy eating, fitness and sustainability through super-hero vegetable characters, books, a television series, on-line games and videos, live performances and educational products.The Bronx Zoo performance will feature the Super Sprowtz on a mission to help the animals in the zoo and to show that even the biggest, strongest animals love their veggies and need them to be super strong!
11:30am, 1:30pm, and 3:30pm in Adjacent to Grizzly Bears
Meet Olivia™
Meet OLIVIA™, star of books and TV!
12:30pm and 2:30pm in Astor Court
Levar Burton of Reading Rainbow Story Time and Meet and Greet
Join actor LeVar Burton, host of the Peabody award-winning series Reading Rainbow for a very special storybook reading just in time for summer. LeVar will share his favorite tips and techniques to encourage young readers and host a special preview of the new Reading Rainbow iPad book discovery and reading application.
1:00 Asia Plaza Stage
June 23th and June 24th
Mainstage: Ferdinand the Bull
A gentle bull who prefers the aroma of wild flowers to fighting, is mistakenly chosen to face a matador after an unfortunate bee incident… and that’s just the beginning!
Presented by The Children’s Theatre Company at Lehman College
11:30am, 1:30pm, and 3:30pm Adjacent to Grizzly Bears
The Tale of the Silly Mouse
This fun tale is a short opera piece written in 1939 by Shostakovich for an animated cartoon. It tells the story of a mouse that just won’t go to sleep and all of the animals…including a cat…that tried to help her.
Presented by On-site Opera
1:30pm, 3:30 pm Asia Stage
Meet Llama Llama
Whether learning how to be brave, battling boredom, going to preschool for the first time, staying home sick, or patiently waiting for the holidays, Llama can always rely on Mama for her love and guidance. Written by Anna Dewdney, this preschool picture book series has hit the New York Times Bestseller List for four of its titles, including the #1 hits Llama Llama Holiday Drama and Llama Llama Home with Mama.
12:30pm and 2:30pm Astor Court
June 30th
Spider-Man Takes Over the Bronx Zoo
“The Amazing Spider-Man” lands on Astor Court on Saturday, June 30th. Guests will be thrilled to see Spider-Man in action as his stunt man shows off Spider-Man’s incredible spidey-skills. Visitors will also be able to show off their own spider-climbing techniques with a specially installed rock wall.
And learn where Spiderman learned all his superhero feats. Don’t miss a special spider-chat with WCS animal staff and learn some of the myths and truths surrounding these 8 legged creatures. Guests will be able to enjoy additional crafts, activities and special Spider-Man giveaways from the new movie, “The Amazing Spider-Man.” Join the fun with your favorite superhero on June 30th. And for super Spiderman fans – kids in Spider-Man costumes will get a special discount on admission to the Bronx Zoo for this day only!
Children will enjoy meeting some of their favorite personalities at the Dancing Crane Pavilion. Meet-and-greets are scheduled with top children’s entertainment characters including Yo Gabba Gabba; Marvel’s Avengers; Nickelodeon’s Dora and Diego, Sportacus from Sprout’s Lazytown; Mo Willems’ Elephant and Piggie; Buddy the T-Rex from Dinosaur Train; Maisy Mouse; Olivia and more.
Eight-time Academy Award-winning composer Alan Menken will present favorite songs from his collection along with Music Unites Youth Choir of Women’s Academy of Excellence on Saturday, June 2.
Actor LeVar Burton, host of the Peabody award-winning series Reading Rainbow will make an appearance on Saturday and Sunday, June 16 and 17 for a special storybook reading. LeVar will share his favorite tips and techniques to encourage young readers and host a special preview of the new Reading Rainbow iPad book discovery and reading application.
A full listing of Animal Tales Extravaganza dates and times is available at http://apps.bronxzoo.com/animal-tales/
For hour, direction and more info, go to: www.bronxzoo.com.
Plus, buy tickets online and save 20% HERE.
About the Wildlife Conservation Society:
“The Wildlife Conservation Society, founded in 1895, has the clear mission to save wildlife and wild places across the globe. During our 115 years, we have forged the power of our global conservation work and the management of our five parks in New York City to create the world’s most comprehensive conservation organization. We currently manage about 500 conservation projects in more than 60 countries; and educate millions of visitors at our five living institutions in New York City on important issues affecting our planet. Our parks include: the Bronx Zoo, New York Aquarium, Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo and Queens Zoo.
The WCS parks in New York City welcome 4 million visitors each year, and help the city to educate millions of schoolchildren in science and conservation issues.”
