Night Zoo Keeper is all about creating a digital space for children to learn and practice reading and writing.
The name may already ring a bell as this is based on the UK novel series of the same title. And yes, that’s where a lot of the characters you see in the images originate. Although there is no need to have read the books to begin getting involved with what’s on offer here.
This platform allows children to use the characters from the book series to create their own that have their own adventures. This allows them to work on spelling, grammar, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing skills — all while having fun.
This guide aims to explain all you need to know about Night Zoo Keeper for education.
What is Night Zoo Keeper?
Night Zoo Keeper is an online platform that is designed to help children explore creative writing as a way to work on improving basic literacy skills.
While there is a version for parents, there is also one that for teaching and grading specifically. In either case, students are met with the Night Zoo Keeper characters of Will, Sam the Spying Giraffe, and Riya, to defeat the evil Lord of Nulth from destroying creativity.
Aimed at children age 6 to 12, this offers feedback to kids so they can be challenged and grow creatively while reading and writing.
Since the platform is online, it can be accessed easily through a browser, both for the children working on projects and for parents or teachers viewing progress.
How does Night Zoo Keeper work?
Night Zoo Keeper features a selection of word-focused games that help children play through a story while working on their vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing.
Students are able to write their own creative stories, within a helpful guidance framework. They are then given feedback by real-world human tutors, assigned to each student to help guide their progress and improvement.
In the app, students see dialogue boxes as if talking to the characters, which guide them on what to do next. A simple text creation space allows them to create their own writing pieces for submission.
What are the best Night Zoo Keeper features?
Night Zoo Keeper offers teachers a really helpful dashboard that provides feedback on student progress. This makes it simple to get an overview of progress on an individual or class level.
The tutoring team is a really powerful part of this service as it features real human feedback. That’s support for the students, but also for the teachers as it shares the work load. Students are given feedback directly, which teachers can also see, allowing them to progress at a rate that works for them.
This is an age-based leveling system so it’s important that students are treated as individuals. Since ability levels can vary across ages, this feedback is important as some students may struggle on one section while another progresses with ease.
A wide selection of reading and writing worksheets can be printed for use in class, or to share for students to take home to complete. These are helpfully broken down into sections, including reading, spelling, punctuation, and grammar, writing activities and prompts, writing styles, and lots of sub-sections for each of these.
How much does Night Zoo Keeper cost?
Night Zoo Keeper offers a free seven day trial but ultimately this is a paid for service that is charged.
A few ways to pay are available, including a monthly fee, at £9.99 ($13.24), or if paid quarterly £9.33 ($12.36) totaling £119.88 ($158.85) for the former, or for the latter it’s £111.96 ($148.35).
Another way is to pay annually, which works out to £8.33 ($11.04) per month or a total or £99.99 ($132.49) for the year.
Night Zoo Keeper best tips and tricks
Keep track
This is gamified learning fun so keep track of progress in class so students can see how they’re doing as a group.
Set a task
Go offline and have students create stories, based on the material, outside of the app for real world creative experiences.
Use the ideas
Take the story writing ideas prompt sheet and work with it in class to build tales and expand into written pieces.