Costs

Members: $49 per child per camp

Non-Members: $53 per child per camp

Early Care: $10 per child per camp
Late Care: $10 per child per camp
Cancellation Fee: $10 per child per camp
Transfer Fee: $10 per child per camp

* All cancellations and transfers must be made via e-mail to Denver Zoo’s Guest Care Center at guestcare@denverzoo.org at least 5 business days before the date of the camp. Within 4 business days, all sales are final.

Dates and Times

Each camp runs from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Early Care and/or Late Care can be added to extend a camper’s day.

Early Care – 8:00 a.m. to 8:45 a.m.
Late Care – 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Registration – will open in early october 2019!

Parents/Guardians must register their own child(ren), using their own account, to participate in Safari Camp.
Members must log-in as members to receive the discount. If you are a member and have never logged in before, use MEMBER LOOK UP to set your password and contact information.
If you are not a member, you must SET UP AN ACCOUNT.

Important Information

Download the 2020-2021 Mini-Camp Important Information PDF to ensure you are ready for camp.

Download PDF

ACCESS TO AWE SCHOLARSHIP FUND

Scholarships are available through Denver Zoo’s Access to Awe Scholarship Fund. Please apply for financial assistance when registering online.

Learn More

Contact Us

Questions or concerns? Contact our Guest Care Center at 720-337-1400 or e-mail guestcare@denverzoo.org.

Program Information

November 25: Creature Challenges

Zoo animals need enrichment, toys, and games just like children! Can your camper come up with ways to help animals learn, grow, and play?

Daily Schedules: Coming soon!

November 26: Creature Comforts

Sometimes, to keep an animal healthy, all it needs is a bit of TLC. Help the Zoo provide that Tender Loving Care and keep all its creatures comfortable and happy!

Daily Schedules: Coming soon!

November 27: Creature Construction

Denver Zoo has some pretty amazing enclosures, but even animals can sometimes use a little home improvement! Can your camper become an exhibit designer by constructing some unique solutions to help our residents?

Daily Schedules: Coming soon!

December 26: Play Date at Denver Zoo

Animals at the Zoo have fun in many ways! We take play seriously, and need your camper to help create new forms of engagement for animals and humans alike!

Daily Schedules: Coming soon!

December 27: Training – How to Train Your (Zoo) Animal

Positive reinforcement is the perfect training method for primates, pachyderms, and parrots! Training animals can be challenging and requires a lot of patience and problem solving. Are you up for the challenge?

December 30, 31 and January 2, 3: Happy, Healthy Zoo (Day 1, 2, 3, 4)

With more than 3,000 creatures at Denver Zoo, there’s a lot that goes into keeping our animals happy and healthy. Campers join in on the fun and complete challenges that make any animal’s day better! This is a unique opportunity for campers to do what our keepers and vets do – innovate to provide care at the highest level. Each camp day brings a new challenge and new animals. Join us for a single day to ‘scratch the surface’ or join us for all four days to become an animal care expert!

March 24, 25, 26 – Call of the Wild (Day 1, 2, 3)

March 31, April 1, 2 (CLASSES REPEAT) – Call of the Wild (Day 1, 2, 3)

Communication is just as important for Denver Zoo’s smallest residents as it is for our largest! Campers explore exactly what animals can tell each other (and us!). How do sights, scents, and sounds call attention to predators or their prey? And how can animals use this to avoid becoming lunch?

Join us for a single day or all three as we ‘talk’ with the animals!

Daily Schedules: Coming Soon!

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Looking for Summer Safari?

Click below to learn all about the Denver Zoo Summer Safari!

Click Here

EDUCATIONAL FOCUS

WHAT IS THE EDUCATIONAL FOCUS FOR SAFARI MINI-CAMPS?

Our top priorities are safety, education, and fun. While zoo exploration/tours and animal encounters/demos are still the core of our programs, the camps staff are taking a different look at how the campers learn, explore, and engage while at Denver Zoo. The instructors will be utilizing inquiry-based, camper-driven approaches to learning in Mini-Camps.

Why do camps require campers work with and attempt to resolve actual challenges faced by Denver Zoo keepers and animals?

We want to provide children real and meaningful challenges — and what better challenges than ones we actually face? This helps provide some insider information to the children as they discover how much goes into providing the incredible level of care Denver Zoo commits to. Additionally, the campers get to experience science in action and do the same types of things that keepers, vets, and Denver Zoo staff do. This method helps your children build critical thinking and problem solving skills in the real world. More importantly, this approach gives campers the chance to really get to know animals personally and build empathy for Denver Zoo’s residents in a way that is not yet possible through a typical zoo visit.

Why did Denver Zoo decide to move to an inquiry-based model for its Mini-Camps?

In the Denver Zoo Learning Experiences Department, we place great value on designing and implementing programs that reflect best practices in teaching and learning. This means a reflective approach to assessing our existing programs as well, where we consistently seek opportunities to revise and move the bar that much higher. We are deeply influenced by research into inquiry, constructivist learning, and the power of learner-driven experiences. We knew our campers loved attending our Mini-Camps, and we’re confident they walked away with some real inspiration. But we saw Mini-Camps as a perfect opportunity to open up the learning even more to students — to provide genuine experiences for children to let their curiosity drive their learning. A supportive camp setting can be an ideal space for genuine inquiry. And so we are super excited to see what our Mini-Camp’s young learners come up with this season.

What are the benefits of this type of education?

We know from the research that student-driven learning is the most impactful for genuine learning, for long-term knowledge and skill retention and growth. When we utilize inquiry in our programming, students have the opportunity to experience an authentic scientific process — from observation and questioning to making predictions and constructing means to seek answers. This is real science, and much more powerful for students than memorizing a simplistic scientific method, the way old-fashioned classrooms used to have them do.

Why does Denver Zoo focus on education instead of just animal welfare?

At Denver Zoo, our mission is inspiring communities to save wildlife for future generations. And while we pride ourselves on our world-class animal care and husbandry, we also recognize the enormous task in impacting human understanding about animals, the environment and our relationship to both. Denver Zoo’s education programs are a terrific opportunity for us to inform and inspire new generations of environmental stewards and scientifically literate citizens.

What does all of this mean?

Inquiry-based means the campers will be investigating, searching, and solving problems. They will seek answers or information and use their critical thinking skills to gather data, use their senses to make observations, problem-solve, engineer solutions, and build a deeper understanding. Student-driven means that while staff will still be facilitating the programs, the direction in which the learning goes really depends on the campers – they will be using their own interests and passion to drive their experiences. This allows campers to construct a better grasp a broader understanding of the zoo, animals, the environment, and their connections to the larger world.

So what would my child do in a Mini-Camp?

It will be different for each group, based on the specific challenge being explored, age of the group, interests of the campers, and more. Instead of instructors sharing facts or telling the campers information, the instructor will ask questions and guide campers to discover the answers. When out in the zoo, campers will make observations and gather information to help them solve their challenge and engage in scientific arguments from evidence. Campers will have more time to more fully examine and explore their challenge, the zoo, experience animals up-close, and synthesize their learning through nature play and engineering solutions.

How is this different than Mini-Camps from years past?

Campers will be learning through doing and have more of say in how and what they learn. A typical day would see campers use everything they do that day, from zoo exploration and animal experiences to design blocks and group time, to solve their daily challenge. If something is constructed and sent home, it will be something the camper felt he or she needed to build in order to solve their given challenge. If your camper brings something home, ask them to tell you about it!

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