Madonna failed to raise a smile over the weekend as she took her children to a Kabbalah petting zoo event.

The miserable singer brought her eldest children Lourdes and Rocco to the New York Kabbalah centre on Saturday, where youngsters were invited to get acquainted with sheeps and goats which had been brought in especially for the day.

Before the Material Girl and family arrived at the centre, an animal handler was spotted carrying a fluffy sheep and Billy goat, who looked startled at being on a busy Manhattan street.

Miserable: A glum-faced Madonna leaves the Kabbalah Centre in New York after taking her children Rocco and Lourdes to meet and greet farm animals

Madonna was dressed casually for the event in cropped black trousers, black T-shirt, baseball cap and 1920s-style, two-toned Oxford shoes.

The 49-year-old singer was outdone in the style stakes by her 12-year-old Lourdes, who looked smart in a fitted sleeveless, V-neck top and trousers, with trendy checked sunglasses and her long curly hair flowing out.

Madonna's excited son Rocco, seven, sprinted into the Kabbalah Centre in a white tennis outfit and royal blue Crocs.

Meanwhile, husband Guy Ritchie was spotted on America's West Coast, also attending a Kabbalah session in Los Angeles.

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Startled: The sheep and Billy goat appear unsettled at the Manhattan traffic and paparazzi as they are carried into the Kabbalah Centre

The couple have spent the last few weeks in New York together, where they have denied reports their marriage is on the rocks.

Madonna released a statement earlier this month denying her relationship was faltering, or that she had been romantically involved with New York Yankees baseball player Alex Rodriguez, who is said to have converted to Kabbalah in recent months.

She said: 'My husband and I are not planning on getting a divorce...

'I am not romantically involved in any way with Alex Rodriguez.  I have nothing to do with the state of his marriage or what spiritual path he may choose to study.'

Last weekend, the couple put on a show of togetherness as they enjoyed a family day out with Lourdes and Rocco at a Manhattan cinema.

Their adopted son David was presumably too young for the cinema and stayed at the couple's Manhattan home with a nanny.

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Day at the zoo: Excited Rocco races into the Kabbalah Centre to meet the animals, while soon-to-be-teen Lourdes looks calm and collected