A Tiny Urban Zoo

"A Tiny Urban Zoo" is a Schoolhouse Rock! Earth song where a boy sings a story about when he became a keeper of a tiny urban zoo. The song focuses on gardens. This song was the winner of Parents' Choice Silver Award and Dr. Toy Best Green Product in 2009.

Song Lyrics[]

Boy: I thought it was a pity to be living in a city

To spot a bird or butterfly was tough

So I found a little corner for the flora and the fauna

A tub or two of dirt was just enough

It's amazing how I started with a little pack of seeds

Soon I'd grown a bunch of plants I used to think were weeds

That's how I became the keeper of a tiny urban zoo

I brought some wildflowers and things just grew

Now I got bugs and beetles, butterflies and birds

And lots of little critters far too beautiful for words

You, too, could be the keeper of a tiny urban zoo

It's really not that hard

You can plant one in your own backyard

Boy: How about a birdbath?

Girl: Do birds bathe?

Boy: Course. They need to drink too.

Girl: They drink their own bathwater? Gross!

Boy: (singing) Soon this venue had a menu, flowers, leaves and grass

There's no finer fast-food diner for the bugs who happen to pass

Caterpillars loved it soon began to munch

Till a passing robin came along for lunch

I became the keeper of a tiny urban zoo

Got lots of creepy crawlies now but who eats who?

The herbivores enjoy a tasty range of plants

The carnivores will eat them if they ever get a chance

You, too, could be the keeper of a tiny urban zoo

It's really not that hard

You can plant one in your own backyard

Female Bird: Look at all those morsels; We can't resist them

Male Bird: Seems he made his own little ecosystem

Boy: Birds are calling, snails are crawling, ladybugs abound

Bees are buzzing by the dozen, butterflies are flitting around

Then we have the spiders; Welcome to my patch

Spin yourselves a cobweb; See what you can catch

That's how

Critters: He became the keeper of a tiny urban zoo

We all need one another or it's no can do

We don't ask for a lot; We're grateful to the child

It's just a mini version of what happens in the wild

All: You, too, could be the keeper of a tiny urban zoo

It's really not that hard

You can plant one in your own backyard

Spider: It's like a jungle out there.

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Media
Schoolhouse Rock! • Schoolhouse Rock Live! • Schoolhouse Rock! 50th Anniversary Singalong

Songs

Schoolhouse Rocky
Multiplication: My Hero, Zero • Elementary, My Dear • Three is a Magic Number • The Four-Legged Zoo • Ready or Not, Here I Come • I Got Six • Lucky Seven Sampson • Figure Eight • Naughty Number Nine • The Good Eleven • Little Twelvetoes
Grammar: Unpack Your Adjectives • Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here • Conjunction Junction • Interjections! • Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla • Verb: That's What's Happening • A Noun is a Person, Place or Thing • Busy Prepositions • The Tale of Mr. Morton
America: No More Kings • Fireworks • The Shot Heard 'Round the World • The Preamble • Elbow Room • The Great American Melting Pot • Mother Necessity • Sufferin' Till Suffrage • I'm Just a Bill • Three Ring Government • I'm Gonna Send Your Vote to College • Presidential Minute
Science: The Body Machine • Do the Circulation • Electricity, Electricity • The Energy Blues • Interplanet Janet • Telegraph Line • Them Not-So-Dry Bones • A Victim of Gravity • The Weather Show
Money: Dollars and Sense • $7.50 Once a Week • Where the Money Goes • Tax Man Max • Walkin' on Wall Street • This for That • Tyrannosaurus Debt • The Check's in the Mail
Earth: Report from the North Pole • The Little Things We Do • The Trash Can Band • You Oughta Be Saving Water • The Rainforest • Save the Ocean • Fat Cat Blue: The Clean Rivers Song • A Tiny Urban Zoo • Solar Power to the People • Windy and the Windmills • Don't Be a Carbon Sasquatch • The Three R's

Scooter Computer and Mr. Chips
Theme • Hardware • Software • Number Cruncher

Characters
Schoolhouse Rocky • Lucky Seven Sampson • Bill • Interplanet Janet