We Interrupt Your School Day for the Following Field Trip!

At about 9 this morning, as The Prophet sat doing his Religion worksheets, I had the urge to go to the zoo. It was simply beautiful outside & I thought it would be the perfect impromptu field trip. We've been studying fish in science, so we decided to start w/ the Coral Reef building. The munchkins got to pet starfish, urchins, crab & snail shells. Then we walked through the rest of the area where there is a huge floor to ceiling aquarium. We got up close to the tank & tried to pick out as many different types of fish that we could find. There were bottlehead sharks, stingrays, & hundreds of fish in different shapes & sizes. The Prophet found it really neat to see their gills & scales up close as they swam near the glass.

Our next stop was the manatees. They only have two now. We were there in the Spring & there were at least three then. From what I gathered, the others had been released back into the ocean. Because manatees have such large lungs, they can hold their breathe under water for quite a long time. We got to see them push off from the bottom of the aquarium & go up to the top for their breath of air. It was so cute to see their little snouts just above the water.

We also went to the reptile building, where the munchkins got to pet a snake - even The Princess wanted to pet it. They had some amphibians in the building too, including a blue poisonous frog. The Prophet enjoyed seeing it since we had studied frogs a few weeks ago. He was fascinated by the Poison Dart Frogs we had read about then.

We took a lunch break & ended up table jumping because the bees were attracted to our PB&J sandwiches. Ever since The Princess got stung last month, she is very tentative around any flying insects. Finally, we decided to just eat as we were walking!

Next stop, Asia - elephants, cranes, red panda, rhinos, & tigers! I got a reallly good picture of the three elephants together (actual elephants, not the munchkins - although I did get some cute pictures of them, too!)

On the way out, I let them look around the gift shop a bit. There are some really neat items there, but very pricey! So, all in all, we had a great trip to the zoo. Another great benefit of homeschooling - we can take off on field trips anytime & not have to worry about permission slips! Besides the great weather, it wasn't crowded at all. There were a few school groups, but even those weren't very big.

Peace,
Munchesmom