Field Trip & Animal Unit

Last Tuesday was FINALLY the day that my second graders have been waiting for since December (and the day I had been having nightmares about since March!)…our field trip to the Atlanta Zoo and Georgia Aquarium. The trip was more than wonderful and their reactions were priceless! Definitely worth every. single. bit of the planning! Most of our students have never been outside of the state and many have never seen outside of our small town. So to be able to provide them with this type of learning experience was more rewarding for me as a teacher than for those sweet kiddos! 

Here are a few pictures from our day! (I so HATE that I can’t show you their facial expressions…adorbs!)

We began at the zoo and saw lots of animals that we had been learning about for weeks. Here are a few of my fave.

 

 

The weather was perfect and the animals were very active. From there, we headed to Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta to have lunch and walk to the Georgia Aquarium.

They about had a fit when they laid eyes on the aquarium!

We began our time at the aquarium with a behind the scenes look at the large exhibits that they would see later on. Umm…can I just say this was probably THE coolest thing that I have ever done on a field trip! My student teacher and I were just as amazed as the students were!

 

We were so super close to these Whale Sharks. They are way cooler above the water than through the glass!

We also got to see how they create the wave effects in one of the exhibits below.

Next was the 3-D movie! It was so cute to see the kiddos try to reach out and touch things! Definitely a favorite! Even if we did get a little wet!

As if the day could get any better, next we were on our way to the dolphin show! They seriously go ALL OUT during this musical/dolphin showdown!

 

Then finally, we were off to explore the exhibits…which included a beluga whale due any day with a 500 pound baby! Let’s just take a second and say a little prayer for this lady! Ha!

 

 

They even had scuba divers come and wave to the kids! Precious!

And this is what happened on the way home! I would say it was a great day! Isn’t that the sweetest thing you have ever seen??? Love this child!

If you are interested in any of the activities that we did during our animal unit prior to our trip, I have compiled everything into a 153 page unit…and it’s still growing! You can check it out below and pick it up at TPT!

Can’t wait for our next trip! Happy Sunday, sweet friends!