Watching a leader make dirt soup
And trying it himself
This was the station he spent the most time at. Other stations were painting with mud, playing with dirt play-doh, digging for worms, seeing real worms, making paper flowers, sorting/matching colors of worms, etc. They also provided a snack of mud, dirt, and worms (chocolate pudding, Oreos, and a gummy worm) which was a nice surprise. [That took me back to Kindergarten--I remember the first time I ate that at a class party (Patrick Aitchison's mom made it for his birthday), and it's still as good now as it was then. :)]
We switched areas after snack and had story time. Then they brought out two animals that live in the dirt--a hedgehog and a ferret!
Hedgehog
I'd never seen a hedgehog before--she was very prickly. I didn't get a picture of the ferret because she was really quick. All the kids were asked to be quiet and still as they were getting the animals out for us to see/touch. Lewis was really good with the hedgehog, and then when they brought the ferret out, he yelled out Kitty Cat! It was too cute--it made the adults laugh, at least. I think if Lewis had his way, we'd have a cat--he really likes them in books and loves to chase them when we visit people who have cats.
For music time, we sang a few garden songs and the kids were able to play along with musical instruments:
Mr. Tambourine Man
Maracas!
He'd already kind of been on a maracas kick before this class, and that continues. He has football maracas that his Auntie Schwee gave him, and he's been using them quite a bit.
Goose!
We walked over to check out some snakes, lizards, etc. at the end of the class and passed these Canada geese on the way back. Lewis didn't seem that afraid of them, but I had flashbacks to feeding the ducks as a kid and having my fingers bruised from the bites.
As I mentioned, we walked around the almost-empty zoo after the class was over. Thankfully there were barely sprinkles. I'd brought the umbrella, figuring we'd have to make a mad dash at some point, but we lucked out.
The grizzly bear greeted us with some impressive water-treading:
Hello!
It was so cool! He literally just kept treading water right up there against the glass. We stayed to watch him for at least 5 minutes, and he wasn't going anywhere.
He'd dip down and splash his face/get a drink from time to time, but then it was back to treading. I've seen one of the grizzlies in the water before playing with a ball, but I didn't realize they were soooo comfortable and strong in the water.
When we got to the elephants, they were doing exercises which was a treat to see:
Carrying a stick (which I guess is technically a log)
Coming over to say hi
This trainer walked this one over to where Lewis and I were standing, and he had it go through some movements right in front of us. It was so cool--it lifted each foot, knelt down, bent up its trunk onto its forehead, and shook its big floppy ears for us. It was awesome.
Posing together
After they were done with their exercises, the elephants were given their snack/food:
This one took that head of lettuce out of the pail right away and set it off to the side, maybe saving it for later? Saving the best for last?
Then with one little swoop of the trunk, it picked up the lettuce and put the whole thing in its mouth. I guess I shouldn't be that surprised since they are such gigantic creatures, but it was still neat to see.
No comments:
Post a Comment