Zoo Field Trip

Every year we take our students on a field trip to the Jacksonville Zoo. I remember going on field trips to the zoo when I was in elementary school, but the zoo wasn't very nice and didn't have very many cool things back then. They have renovated the entire zoo since then and it is so much nicer now. I love taking my students to the zoo because it is a really easy field trip to chaperone and my little group (about 7-9 students) and I get to go around and do whatever we want to.

We took our annual field trip to the zoo on Tuesday. The science teacher on my team, myself, and a couple of parents chaperoned the trip. I had a group of 7 girls and they made the whole trip fun and easy. We took a bus to the zoo from school and as soon as we got there we went to the picnic area outside of the zoo. We ate lunch there before heading into the actual zoo. Remember, middle school starts really late so it was already about 10:45 when we got off the bus at the picnic area.

After lunch, we started our tour of the zoo. There was talk about possible rain that day, but it managed to stay away and give us a nice sunny day. It was really hot, but we didn't let that spoil our fun. Luckily, there are lots of trees and caves at the zoo where you can get out of the sun.

We spent the day frolicking around, visiting the animals and enjoying being away from school. We definitely made a stop at the shaved ice stand, which is my favorite thing to get at the zoo. That made battling the heat much more manageable.

There is a new attraction at our zoo called DinoAlive! that my group really wanted to go see, but it costs extra money in addition to the park admission and we were running short on time. I guess I will just have to wait until my sister-in-law, Erika, comes to visit and we can make a trip to the zoo together to see it :)

The girls in my group were so hilarious, especially when they kept comparing all the animals (mostly the monkeys and elephants) to the boys in their class. Gotta love 12 year olds :)

I had such a great day at the zoo with my students! I love taking them to places outside of school because I get to know them so much better as the kids they really are rather than just as students. Plus, getting paid to spend a work day at the zoo is not a bad deal either. Just another perk of being a teacher :)

My students are on another field trip today to the World of Nations at Met Park downtown. I stayed behind to supervise some of the kids not going on the field trip so that one of the other teachers on my team could go since I just went on a field trip. Sharing is caring :) Plus, I am going to go to World of Nations this weekend with Jared and my parents. If you have never been before, I highly recommend it!

Since I only have 9 kids in my class all day today, we are going to do a little work this morning and then we are going to spend the afternoon having a Harry Potter marathon, in honor of the Royal Wedding of course :)