Night Zookeeper Blog

Fostering creativity in early childhood can greatly boost your child's development, improving their mental, emotional, academic and social skills. This article explores the many benefits of encouraging creativity in young children.

Back to School can bring up lots of different emotions for children. Get them excited for a new school year with 15 fun and reflective writing prompts!

Reading plays a huge role in our daily lives, whether skimming through text messages or following a recipe. It helps us learn new skills and stay connected with others effortlessly. The benefits of reading extend to all ages, but its impact on children is particularly profound. Read on to find out how reading benefits a child's well-being.

As your child starts reading, having conversations, and learning, they’ll come across new words, slowly building their vocabulary as they progress through grades/years. Effective vocabulary development creates the foundation for strong English language skills and comprehension, allowing young learners to express themselves more confidently and understand the world around them better.

Writing is a cornerstone of early childhood development, enhancing communication, vocabulary, and self-expression. It fosters essential skills for success in academics and beyond, making it vital to encourage children to write from a young age. Here's how you can inspire your child to embrace writing as a fun and rewarding activity!

Our collection of story prompts promises to entertain and inspire young storytellers, from intergalactic missions to enchanting adventures in magical forests. So, grab your pens and let the storytelling begin!

World Creative Writing Month 2024 is here! Join us this March as we challenge Night Zookeepers around the globe to participate in a fantastically fun and creative event- the 5 Million Word Quest!

Around this time of year, many families encounter a drop in enthusiasm for learning. A number of factors can cause the February Slump, like gloomy weather, routine fatigue, or burnout. Here are some steps you can take to overcome it!

Our reading and writing activities offer a fun way to boost creativity, improve English language skills, and inspire a love for reading and writing in your child!

Reading and writing are essential skills that work hand-in-hand to help us communicate effectively. Being able to read and write from a young age has many benefits. Learn why reading and writing are important here!

Whether you’re looking for birthday party games or fun indoor activities to do on rainy days, these creative games will keep your child entertained while boosting their reading and writing skills!

The year is almost over, but we couldn't say goodbye to 2023 without sharing some awesome updates just launched on Nightzookeeper.com. These have been created to make reading & writing more accessible, exciting, and fun!

Navigating teaching English can be tricky, but we've got you covered! Here are our favourite games that will improve your child's English skills in no time.

Teaching language arts can be difficult, but we're here to help! Here are our top recommendations for language arts games that your child will love!

Teaching your child to read can be challenging, but there are thousands of fun ways to improve this skill. Here are our top free reading games to kickstart your child’s journey!

Finding fun ways to ease your child’s learning process can be a game-changer, especially if they’re a reluctant learner. Here are the best spelling games that you can try with your child!

Teaching language arts is a challenging task, but we're here to help! Here are some common questions asked by parents, tips on how to overcome challenges, and activities to make ELA fun!

Are you interested in unschooling? Learn more about what unschooling means and how it differs from traditional schooling. We also address some common concerns, offer valuable tips and resources for a successful start, and show you a glimpse into the future of this educational approach.

Are you intrigued by the concept of gameschooling? Dive into the exciting world of gameschooling as we explore its definition, various approaches, the benefits and disadvantages you should be aware of, and discover how you can seamlessly integrate it into your homeschooling journey.

Teaching language arts can be a rewarding, yet challenging adventure. We’re here to guide you through how you can successfully teach this core subject in a fantastically fun way!

Teaching children to write can be challenging, but there are many ways to make it enjoyable for both you and your child! Here's a list of the best writing games for kids that you can try anytime, anywhere!

Celebrate Father's Day with heartfelt gratitude for all dads, stepdads, grandads, and other father figures. Explore these writing prompts to honor the amazing father figures in our lives!

How can you beat the summer slide and avoid learning loss, while allowing your child to have a well-deserved summer break? Get inspired with our summer learning activities, and learn how you can use them to beat the summer slide and set your child up for academic success in the new school year!

Taking care of your child's wellbeing has become more important than ever. Studies have shown that creative writing positively impacts children's wellbeing and helps them learn key social skills that will help keep your child happy and healthy!

March is World Creative Writing Month and this year at Night Zookeeper we are challenging our young writers with a 5 Million Word Quest. Every word published by our Night Zookeepers will count towards our collective goal of reaching 5 Million Words!

Writing is one of the most used types of communication, and it’s a skill your child will need in their academic journey. However, teaching your child to love writing can be an extremely challenging task. This is why we've gathered our favorite ways to inspire a love for writing in your child!

New year, new writing prompts! Use these creative writing ideas to get your child inspired to write and back into learning mode. These prompts will help your child write stories, poems, reports, and much more!

Setting clear objectives for the new year can have a positive impact on your child’s academic performance & general development. Here are our top tips on how to set clear goals for the new year!

Encouraging your child to practice literacy skills can be challenging, especially if they find literacy boring, or look at it as schoolwork. From family game nights, to epic singing battles, we hope these suggestions help spark a passion for learning in your child, all while having fun!

Writing can be a challenging skill to learn, but at Night Zookeeper, we believe in making writing fun. Here are some great writing activities that will transform your child’s attitude toward writing!

Christmas is a great time to let your child’s imagination run wild! Encourage your child to express themselves creatively this holiday season with some fun, Christmas creative writing prompts!

Inspire your child to keep writing even after Christmas with our 12 days of Christmas writing prompts. These prompts will help you keep the festivities going until January!

Inspire your child to write all month long with our fantastically fun December writing prompts - perfect to get into the festive spirit!

Mental wellbeing has become a global topic of discussion, but children’s mental health specifically continues to be overlooked. Without the right tools, children may struggle to find ways to manage their mental wellbeing. Here are our best, fun creative activities to improve your child's wellbeing!

October is the first full month of a brand new season, and as usual, we have lots to write about as we celebrate World Smile Day, World Animal Day, World Teachers’ Day and Halloween! If you’re on the hunt for some amazingly creative writing prompts, you’ve come to the right place!

Recently, grammar has been argued to no longer be an important area of study when it comes to English language. Technology is now used in classrooms and workplaces worldwide to enable grammar to be easily corrected at the click of a button. We’re here to argue why it remains important for children to learn grammar!

In recent years, technology has started to revolutionize the way we think about all aspects of education. Here at Night Zookeeper,  we believe that technological advancements in education offer great ways to keep children engaged and entertained, which is a known challenge for traditional schooling methods. Learn more about the benefits of technology in education here!

These September writing prompts are perfect whether your child is getting ready for Autumn or enjoying the first few days of Spring!

Looking for a great way to spark an interest in writing? This list of young writers competitions offer an insight on current events that your child can participate in (and win amazing prizes)! Writing competitions are a wonderful way to motivate your child to write more, so be sure to give these a go!

Now that we’ve settled into the second half of the year and a new school year approaches, get your child’s writing back on track with our best August writing prompts!

Curious about different teaching methods and how they work? Learn more about the differences, similarities, pros and cons of homeschooling, unschooling and gameschooling here. We hope this article will help you decide what works best for your family, or at the very least, offer some guidance on how to try these innovative forms of learning!

Because students have varying needs, many learning strategies have been emerging in the academic world to accommodate all learners. Microlearning is one of these new learning strategies; it utilizes short bursts of time with the goal of learning a specific topic. This learning strategy is engaging and easily digestible for many students! Microlearning is effective because it covers the main points of a topic, but doesn't bore or confuse students with too many minute details. Learn more about what makes microlearning effective and how you can implement it with your child!

In her new book, 103 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum, Cathy Duffy selected Night Zookeeper as one of the best programs for language arts! Her review highlights the fantastically fun features that will get your child to love reading and writing.

We have much to celebrate in the month of July, including some awesome international animal days, yummy holidays and friendship! Let your child's imagination run wild with our favorite July-themed writing prompts!

Gamification has been proven to be extremely beneficial to all children's learning, but is especially useful for children who struggle with special educational needs. Gamification can help students improve their focus, motivation, engagement, and more. Learn more about how children with SEN can use gamification to revolutionize their learning!

Worldschooling is a fascinating approach to education, and a method that is rapidly growing in popularity. With a little help from technology, worldschooling has never been as attainable as it now is, but what are some of the advantages and risks that come with this teaching method? Find out how you can worldschool your child here!

Paragraphs help to organize ideas into separate sections with the aim to make it easier for the reader to consume the text at hand and understand the information shared. In this article, we’re giving you our top tips on how you can help your child to successfully write a paragraph!

It's finally time to bring out the beach towels, swimwear and sun cream! However, we can't forget how important it is to keep your child's brain active during the summer break. Our amazing summer writing prompts will do just that!

Summer can be a tricky time of the year for parents, as it's sometimes challenging to keep children entertained in a productive way! Looking for new, educational activities to do with your child this summer break? This article may be just what you've been looking for!

Have you ever wondered how important drawing is in terms of writing skills development? Drawing is considered to be the foundation needed in order for children to be able to develop writing skills at an older age. Learn more about how drawing and writing work together and their benefits here!

Gamified learning is defined as the process of applying gaming features to traditional learning ,with the aim to create a more interactive learning experience. Learn more about the principles of gamified learning & how Night Zookeeper can help here!

A summary is an overview or condensed version of a full story or text. It can sometimes be a challenging task to accomplish, as your child will have to be very selective on what to include. Learn more about how you can guide your child on how to successfully write a summary here!

“My child hates writing” is a phrase we hear a lot from parents who have not yet found an effective way to transform their reluctant writer’s attitude toward this task. Here are our best tips on how to get your child to love writing, from parents who have overcome this obstacle!

Let your child's imagination run wild with our awesome May Writing Prompts! These writing prompts have been created to help your child develop their skills in various styles of writing, including opinion pieces, persuasive texts, storytelling, list-making and letter writing. Be sure to share these with your child!

ADHD affects 2.2% of children worldwide and it can be an extremely challenging condition to manage. Symptoms include low attention span, hyperactivity, disorganization and many others, all of which have a direct impact on education. Here's how Night Zookeeper has been able to help children with ADHD.

Are you currently working from home and homeschooling your kids? Do you feel a little lost and in need of some guidance? These are the best tips on how to combine working from home and homeschooling!

These Environmental Writing Prompts have been created to raise awareness about the current environmental crisis and to get your child to think creatively about all the ways they can help!

Here are some fantastically fun April Writing Prompts to inspire your child to write all month long! April is a busy month, with lots of great things to celebrate, including Earth Day, World Penguin Day and Poetic Earth Month.

Organizing your homeschool day can be an overwhelming and challenge task and we're here to help you! Having worked with many homeschooling families, these are the best tips we've gathered on how to organize your homeschool day.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers, grandmothers, friends, and family members who have taken on this important role! Celebrate Mother's Day with these amazing writing prompts!

There are many ways to get your child excited about creative writing, but it can be helpful to have a structure to work from, so we’ve outlined some simple steps on how your child can write a story and enjoy themselves in the process!

With Springtime around the corner and World Creative Writing Month in full swing, we've gathered some awesome March writing prompts to inspire your child's creativity and to get excited about writing!

World Creative Writing Month is back for 2022! This is your chance to challenge your children and students to write as many stories as possible throughout the month of March.

Happy Library Lovers' Month! To celebrate libraries worldwide, we've put together some fun facts about these amazing institutions. There are also some awesome library-related writing prompts, just for your child!

Discover why creative writing is a powerful tool to help children understand and process their emotions, easing feelings of anxiety.

Inspire your child to love writing this February with our fantastically fun writing prompts! These prompts include journal entries, story starters, prompts to help your child celebrate special days, and much more. Happy February!

Ever wondered what goes into preparing your child for learning how to write? Well, look no further! We've got some awesome tips from trusted educators and fellow parents which will for sure set your child up for success!

Our New Year's resolution is to inspire your child to love writing! Try our New Year writing prompts to get your child excited for new beginnings, and to start improving their skills this year.

These fun facts for kids are designed to teach your child about animals and encourage their creativity. We've also included fun writing prompts to help spark your child's imagination and help them write cool new things.

Our holiday writing prompts will make your child excited to write even during the holiday season. Encourage them to keep their skills on track while having fun!

Children’s education and media company Night Zookeeper is launching the first book in the world where kids can design and draw the hero! This personalized book is the perfect gift option for the holidays.

Learning how to read is hard! Teaching your child how to read can be even harder. Here are six amazing ways to teach your child to read

These are the best creative activities to do at home to entertain the whole family - from preschoolers, to older kids, to even parents!

Have you ever heard of hybrid learning? Find out more about this learning method and how it may benefit your child's academic progress here!

Encourage and inspire your child with these seven amazing tips on why you should encourage your child to read (and read a lot).

Have you ever wondered why spelling is such an important skill to develop? Take a closer look at some of the main reasons why spelling is crucial for children's educational (and professional) success!

Learn about the benefits of storytelling towards child development in this article. We explore the effects of storytelling on children's learning and why it's important to introduce storytelling early.

Learn how to create a homeschool routine that works for you and your family with our advice and suggestions from other homeschoolers!

Are you looking for ways to engage your reluctant learner? We recommend that you introduce humor into your child's learning process and start encouraging laughter. Pairing learning with laughter can be incredibly beneficial for your child’s education and general well-being.

Get ready for the new school year with our top tips that will help you set your family up for success, including developing a new routine and introducing new methods to improve your child's learning experience.

Night Zookeeper has joined forces with Amazon to offer an exclusive educational Alexa Skill for its Amazon Kids+ service. Called Night Zookeeper Write and Draw, it launches in the UK alongside a funky new Echo Dot Kids speaker.

The Night Zoo is a very magical world indeed, but we want children to recognise the magic of the world they already live in. Celebrate Earth Day with these amazing Earth Day Writing Prompts!

At Night Zookeeper, we’re proud to celebrate Autism Acceptance Month. Our topmost priority is to promote acceptance for every child who uses our platform, particularly including children with more unique needs. We strive to give every child a safe and positive space that they will feel comfortable in. We’re delighted to share a guest post that Amber Donaldson, subscriber to the Night Zookeeper platform and mother of four submitted to us.

These super spring writing prompts will help your child to grow their imaginations and their writing skills!

World Creative Writing Month was back for another year, starting March 1, 2021. This exciting competition challenged children to write as many stories as possible throughout the month. The very best writing was showcased each week with prizes up for grabs!

Whether you’re homeschooling or simply looking for creative writing prompts to do after school during the month of November, here is a list of our favorites!

Unexpected circumstances such as a protracted lockdown can seem scary, heavy and uncertain for children. There are many ways to help alleviate the negative emotions a child might experience. One such way is creative writing! Here's why.

Make Halloween fantastically fun with our spooktacular Halloween writing prompts!

How you can help your child with dysgraphia or dyslexia to enjoy writing. Dyslexia and dysgraphia are common learning difficulties experienced by children. It can be incredibly tough to find a program that not only helps encourage a child to love creative writing who struggles with either of these difficulties, but also one that allows them to actually flourish as creative writers! So, the main question is how can we help someone with dysgraphia or dyslexia with their writing so that they can grow to love it? There are plenty of online learning games and options for dyslexia and dysgraphia that can help your child.

We're nearly halfway through the year already! June is an awesome month as it brings a change in seasons and plenty of smiles. We've created some June writing prompts that will encourage your child to use their imagination and have lots of fun whilst writing!

Together with IMM's Care to Care and printed.com, we created two Star Writing Challenges aiming to brighten lives and spread positivity during the Covid-19 pandemic. Learn more!

Whether you’re interested in getting your child to read or write poetry, there are numerous benefits to introducing this form of writing to them. Poetry will be all around them: be it in children’s poetry books they will encounter or simply through the songs they hear on the radio. So, how does one introduce poetry to children? How do they start writing poems, themselves? What kind of poetry is the best to start with? Poetry is varied and comes in many different shades of colour!

We’re delighted to announce that we’ve teamed up with our friends at Times Tables Rock Stars to allow students the chance to collect these fun Night Zookeeper characters!

Night Zookeeper, the fun creativity website, SKY TV animated series, and popular chapter books; will be hosting a free magical interactive experience at Chessington World of Adventures Resort in February half term (February 15-23).

Night Zookeeper was designed to inspire a love of reading and writing in children, while at the same time helping to develop their creative thinking skills, as well as genuinely improving the quality of their writing. Here are eleven awesome ways Night Zookeeper could do this for your child!

Whether your child is naturally creative, or not quite there yet, there are ways in which you can raise them to be the most creative version of themselves. Why is this important, you might ask? Raising a creative child is incredibly important because it will help prepare them for their future. With the rise of technology, the job industry is constantly changing. Who knows what jobs will be available in the next ten to fifteen years? What is certain, is that being able to imagine something that doesn’t exist already and communicate it properly will prepare your child to handle any challenges thrown their way. This is an incredibly useful life skill.

Now that the weather is getting colder, what better way to stay warm and cozy than with some fantastically fun creative writing prompts?

These word games will help improve your child's language skills and while getting them excited about reading & writing!

Let’s face it. Some children are natural born storytellers with creativity and imagination spilling from their fingers. For them, exploring creative writing is just the beginning of a beautiful journey. However, for some children, getting them to want to write is a tedious and stressful task. While writing might not come naturally to every child, this does not mean that your child can’t eventually learn to really love creative writing! This blog explores how to encourage your child to want to write.

Our fall writing prompts will inspire your child to engage their imagination and create new poems, persuasive essays, adventure stories, reports, short stories, and much more!

Night Zookeeper is the basis for a literacy program that inspires children to draw, write and think creatively. Our belief is that too much of the content children consume, leaves little or no room for their own imagination and that in homes and schools, creativity is falling further and further down the list of priorities.

In September 2018, Colt Technology Services partnered with Night Zookeeper to bring gamified learning to classrooms across the UK. Learn more about this amazing partnership!

We were very excited to attend a very special screening of the animated Night Zookeeper series at the BAFTA Theatre in London on Saturday March 16th. At a packed-out event, children were able to watch the first four episodes of the Night Zookeeper TV series currently showing on Sky Kids.

The Night Zookeeper team are visiting schools all over the UK gathering fantastic ideas for the new animated series on Sky TV

We recently had great fun with a group children from St Mary Magdalen’s Catholic Primary School in Mortlake when we joined them on a visit to a BAFTA and Emmy award-winning animation studio where they became animators for the day and saw their drawn creations come to life.

The team here at Night Zookeeper is delighted to be giving primary school children across the UK a unique opportunity to use a new (and free!) website to create characters for a soon-to-launch animated TV series in a world first. Of course, Night Zookeeper is already well-known to school children aged seven and above as an award-winning digital platform that encourages literacy and writing, but soon it’ll also be an animated series on Sky Kids!

We are very excited to announce that our free website and teacher/parent guide for the new animated Night Zookeeper TV series is now live! Teachers and parents can give their children the chance to see their creations come to life in an animated series simply by completing creative challenges on the website.

This week, our Night Zookeeper Teacher in the spotlight is Matt Peebles. Matt is a fourth-grade teacher based in Illinois who has been using Night Zookeeper with his students for the last couple of months.

Sky Kids has commissioned 10 episodes of animated series Night Zookeeper for 2019. Night Zookeeper, created by Wonky Star, is a UK-based children’s brand, which has grown organically over the last six years from a primary teaching resource. Their website, nightzookeeper.com, is used in thousands of schools across the world to inspire children to invent their own magical animals, and then write stories about them. The animated series will invite children throughout the UK to participate by creating characters or background designs and suggesting plot points and dialogue for the show.

At Night Zookeeper, children have the option to submit their work to be featured on our curated class blog list. Our class blog is a great way of sharing students’ work and allow them to leave feedback on other children's work. Find out more about why blogging is important for children!

Do your students love Night Zookeeper? Are you looking for new opportunities to stretch their creativity? Would your students love to be part of a hit SKY animated TV show? If so, then we’ve got an amazing opportunity for you this year!

We’ve created these short walkthrough videos to help show you some of the cool features inside our new Reading Light Resource.

We’ve created a feature this summer to gamify the process of keeping a reading record. We think this will have a huge impact on student motivation levels as they are rewarded in their Night Zoo account for the amount of reading they are doing ‘offline’.

We are pleased to report a partnership with the Japanese NPO, YouMeWE. Thanks to this fantastic organisation, Night Zookeeper is now being used by children’s homes in Japan, charity schools in the Philippines, and by children from Syria, in refugees camps.

Gamification is becoming a more and more popular way for teachers to engage and teach students in areas where they may sometimes struggle. Although gamification of the classroom doesn’t neccesarily need tablets, computers etc, this article discusses 3 different websites/apps that use gamification as a tool to engage students and how they can be used in class.

Writing helps children develop their communication, emotional intelligence, self-expression, and confidence. We know this skill doesn't always come naturally to children, so we're here to make it easy and fun to learn! Here are 25 fantastically fun writing prompts for you to try, whether you’re homeschooling, or simply looking for an educational activity to do at the weekend

Gamifying writing can be a powerful tool to transform your child’s experience of learning to write, and a game changer for students who have a negative view of traditional education. Learn how!

A school in Norfolk is dramatically improving writing skills. Here’s how. Langham Primary School has been using the digital writing website nightzookeeper.com, for the past three years, with some amazing results.

Here are our 5 Top Tips on how to help your child transform into a true author and fall in love with learning on Night Zookeeper! These tips will help to encourage your child to connect with their friends, whether you're homeschooling or using Night Zookeeper as a supplemental resource.

Night Zookeeper named as one of the EdTech50! We are delighted to have been chosen as one of the EdTech50, out of 600 overall applications. The EdTech50 awards recognise products and projects that demonstrate impactful and effective use of Edtech in the UK.

With one week left to go of our yearly World Creative Writing Month competition, we have already exceeded three million published words, produced by students around the world! Visit the latest WCWM18 league table by clicking the image below…