Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo for kids
The Zoo in the Basement. A true story near Palo Alto, CA, told for kids 6-8.
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Guess where a zoo got its start around here? In the basement of a school! A long time ago, a woman named Josephine O'Hara started the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo down in a school basement. That was in 1934!
Now it's a real zoo and museum, and it's just for kids like you! It has bobcats, raccoons, hedgehogs, ducks, bats, and snakes! Imagine going down to the basement to get your lunchbox and finding a snake saying hello. Here's a game for the car.
Look out the window and try to spot a raccoon in the wild tonight. Raccoons love sneaking around after dark, so check the backyards!
Quiz the back seat
Where did the Junior Museum and Zoo first start?
Show the answer
In a school basement. In a school basement! Today it teaches over fourteen thousand students a year.
3 fun facts
- The Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo was founded in 1934 by Josephine O'Hara in the basement of a local elementary school.
- The zoo has bobcats, raccoons, hedgehogs, ducks, bats, and snakes.
- It offers science classes to over 14,000 students a year.
For grown-ups
Written with AI from public sources, then checked claim by claim against the sources below before it was published; stories that don't pass stay off the app and this site. Narration is pre-recorded, and nothing you do on this page is tied to your kids.
Sources
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Town and county names: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0).