Little Explorers Petting Zoo

Hello! My name is Kris.

I have been teaching animal concepts to pre-k to 5th-grade students for the past 12 years, traveling with my beloved animals to more than 500 schools each year. Explaining concepts in ways younger students can understand and can build upon in their studies.  I love the way children’s brains work, how they think and hope to share my passion for animals, and their positive influence on others with them.

My lessons are clam, educational, interesting, inviting, and always stress empathy towards all animals. My favorite part of these lessons is when the students have questions or share comments. These often lead to an amazing and educational discussion. I am the sister to a brother of many special needs. I absolutely love working with children with disabilities, all of our programs are inclusive to all learning styles.

I have been an animal lover my whole life! Early on things were pretty plain pet wise just 2 dogs and a rabbit, because of this I understand the look on most of the faces I meet. Those who just dream of living with nature and animals all around them- that was me! As a child, I would always gravitate towards every animal I met. Things started getting interesting when I had my daughter, an avid nature lover. Over the first few years of her life came a broad variety of pets, a rabbit, a frog, a tortoise, a bearded dragon, chickens, ducks, a potbelly pig, a goat, and a miniature horse. I just loved the way these amazing pets were enriching our family. Our house quickly became the place to visit after school for many of the local kids. After my kids had grown I still wanted to share the experience with others, which led to the opening of Little Explorers Petting Zoo. It’s over a decade later we are still committed to sharing that experience with more than 1500 families per year! Being located in the San Francisco Bay Area we come across all characters of people when out in the public, many of whom would otherwise not get the chance to get up close and create positive lasting impressions of these wonderful creatures.

We have many animals available to come visit you virtually, the animals you will meet depends on the program you choose! We have mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates. Our zoo employs a team of educated animal caretakers who make sure all of our animals get what they need when they need it. Now all of the animals patiently wait for the days they can go out and meet new people, classes like this give both them and myself an excellent opportunity to continue our business’s goal of educating all.