Customer Reviews

Adventures with Wink & Blink: A Day in the Life of a Zoo!

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A non-commercial, in depth kid-documentary about a zoo and people who work in them. The garbage truck DVD and firehouse DVD I would also recommend. Catchy music, too.

It's low budget, but the creativity of the writer and producer pulls it all together.

I picked up a copy of "Adventures of Wink & Blink: A Day in the Life of a Zoo!" at the Santa Barbara Zoo gift shop. My son (5) and daughter (2) have been watching it multiple times each day since.

Wink and Blink are big, goofy, live-action characters that encourage kids to think and imagine and learn about the world around them. There is some portion of make-believe lands, but the bulk of the DVD is live, on-site footage. This episode goes beyond the standard zoo tour of the habitats. It introduces kids to the feeding and care of the animals too. We see the zoo keepers preparing and distributing lunch to their charges, and we see the zoo veterinarian ministering to sheep and tortoises.

I watched Wink and Blink with my children the first time and found that the DVD contained some lovely surprise features and lessons.

- There is an additional 30 minutes of footage (set to music) of many of the zoo animals at play in their habitats (monkeys, giraffes, lions, bears, otters, sea lions, birds, etc.) which gives my children more time to watch and learn about how the animals interact;
- There's an element of social awareness and tolerance built in to the giraffe segment. One of the SB zoo's giraffes - Gemina - has a crooked neck. Wink & Blink explain that it's ok to be different.
- The Special Features section has sing-a-longs of the songs, with lyrics in large, easy to read text;
- There are great vocabulary building words, animal names as well as shape names and identifications;
- The background music has a lively Caribbean flare;
- And throughout the episode, there is a riddle.

My kids dance around the house singing the zoo songs. They ask us often if Wink and Blink will be at other places we're going - the grocery store, the car wash, the library.... I can only reply that I hope, in the near future, Wink and Blink WILL be at all those places and more, so that they can answer the "How come?" and "Why?".

On the Wink and Blink website (www.winkandblink.com) I found that there are 2 other episodes available and free coloring book pages that you can print out. A Day in the Life of a Fire Fighter! and A Day in the Life of a Garbage Truck! will be holiday gifts for my own kids, and birthday party presents for their friends.