Monday, January 16th

Bear & Deco in The New Wagon!

On Monday, I decided to have school at the Zoo since: a.) We haven't been there in awhile b.) We haven't done anything "fun" in awhile c.) We haven't gotten a chance to use Deco's new wagon for any long outings yet (he got it for Christmas from Nani.) d.) We needed to get out of the house! e.) And the weather was going to be perfect! So, off we headed, backpack full of PB&J sandwiches, wagon in tow! Since it was school and not just a "fun" trip, I decided to have do a Zoo Animal Scavenger Hunt. Before we left, I picked three animals that I wanted Bear to find, wrote four clues (that she could read) about each animal on index cards, and put those cards into three envelopes. She would have to read the clues, figure out the animal, find it, take a picture of it (I love digital cameras!) and then tell me some things that she noticed about the animal. I was dutifully taking notes about her obsercations so that we can turn the whole thing into some sort of craft once I get the pictures developed! The animals I chose were: 1.) Penguin - clues: small, black & white, swims, bird 2.) Sea Otter - clues: barks, does tricks, swims, has flippers 3.) Flamingo - clues: two long legs, eats fish, bird, pink (I was pretty sure that flamingos eat fish - I might be wrong on that one!) It was a BLAST! Of course, we saw a ton of other animals, too. We got to see them feeding the Aldabra tortoises, which was neat - although not very exciting, really. The tortoises are HUGE, however, and one of them is almost 100 years old! (It's amazing the things you'll learn if you listen to the Zoo volunteers!) The funniest thing that we saw was happening while the keepers were cleaning the tigers enclosure, which is right by the lions enclosure. The lions and tigers pens are separated by a rock wall and two very deep trenches. One keeper was down in the tigers trench, raking leaves and such, and I looked across and noticed that the male lion was sitting at the VERY edge of his pen, looking very interestedly at the keepers. I asked the keeper if it made him nervous, knowing that the lion was over there, wishing he could get across and have lunch! Then the female came over and started roaring at the keepers - it was awesome!!

(I titled this picture : "That keeper would be SO TASTY!")

So, that was school for yesterday! If only every day could be a field trip day!