The Lee Family: The Fourth Grade Field Trip to the Ft Worth Zoo

Today was the last field trip of 4th grade with a visit to the Ft. Worth Zoo. Since I was just there with Olivia and the Kindergarteners, I knew it would be a fun day. There was a risk of rain, but the teachers decided to go ahead with the plan and we all met at the zoo around 10am. I drove Linda, Alexa's Grandma and Pritha, Shivani's mom. Linda's husband, John has been instrumental in teaching both my kids how to read and write and is very involved at CES. He and I have driven to the zoo field trips for the past few years and it's a little bit of a tradition at this point. He was originally going to go, but decided to stay behind and read with Mrs. Schultz' Kinder Cuties for the last time this year. Linda is an equally lovely person who is easy to be around and the three of us had a good trip to Ft. Worth.

We bought our zoo tickets and our kids arrived on the school buses around 10am. My group consisted of Sofia, Elena, and Sofi B. Sofia wanted to see the lions and elephants, Elena was completely content to see anything and Sofi B. was completely focused on getting Dippin' Dots after lunch. It was a lot chillier than I expected and my shorts and long-sleeved shirt weren't as comfortable as I expected. Of course, I also had my backpack full of all of our lunches, extra snacks, extra water and my wallet and things, so I was carrying extra weight which helped warm me up enough. I brought my "real" camera with me, but ended up leaving it in the back of the car since I was afraid it would start raining and I wouldn't have room in my backpack to keep it dry. I really prefer taking pictures with my "real" camera, but my iPhone would have to do for this visit.

We headed toward the giraffes, elephants, hippos, and ostriches. One perk of having the cooler and cloud-covered weather is that all of the animals were out and active. After visiting those animals, we headed up to see the lions and tigers and saw the rhinoceros - one of my very favorite animals. The first of the big cats we came across is the white tiger, which is absolutely stunning! It was laying right next to viewing window, so we were able to get a cute photo of the girls together. From there we visited the other tigers and lions and I gave each of the girls a granola bar since they were all starting to get hungry. We continued on and came to the parrot house, where I gave each of the girls $1 and they bought a stick of peanut butter and bird seed. The parrot house was really crowded already and most of the birds were on the enclosure fence or really high in the tree branches and not interested in eating. Of course, there were a few who the girls convinced to eat their bird seed and we probably spent 20 minutes with the birds before I told the girls it was ready to continue our visit.

The girls saw a small shark and kangaroos as part of the Australian Outback exhibit. The kangaroos were actually walking around rather than snoozing in the shade, as they always are in all of our previous visits. We also saw a variety of raptors, which Sofia really loves and then we decided to stop for lunch. The girls found a picnic bench and we dried of the wet seats with napkins and ate our lunches. Throughout lunch the girls were debating whether they wanted Kona Ice or Dippin' Dots. Technically, the chaperones aren't supposed to buy anything for the kids on field trips, but I figured it wouldn't be a big deal if we got something at the end of our visit.

We walked all the way to the Texas Wild Depot and visited the "Texas Traditions" exhibit that included all the Texas native animals and plants and was really interesting. We'd never been inside before, so Sofia was totally focused on reading everything she could about each display. Meanwhile, Sofi B and Elena quickly headed to the main area, where we soon watched a short preview show about Texas weather before we headed into the main little theater to hear about the Texas environment and how people and animals need to co-exist with the resources that we have. It was an incredibly balanced and fair representation on our ecosystem, I thought. The girls loved it and it was only about 15 minutes long. We continued to the Texas native animals with the first one being a favorite - the burrowing owl. There were three in the enclosure and they were all out of their little burrows. They are so cute! We continued on and visited the alligator, black bear and otters before swinging into the bats, snakes and spider house. Of course, Sofia really loved checking out and learning about the bats, snakes and spiders and I had to convince Sofi B from zooming ahead and leaving the building so she could hurry to Dippin' Dots.

We left the Texas Wild Depot in search of Dippin' Dots and ended up having to walk all the way back to the elephants! The girls each decided on cookies and cream Dots and they were so thoughtful in thanking me. As they were enjoying their Dippin' Dots and strolling toward the entrance, Sofia noticed that we'd missed going into the amphibian house. She wanted to run in and look around, but we really didn't have enough time at that point. She was bummed and I told her we could return to the zoo anytime this summer. From there, we headed back toward the entrance to meet the teachers and other students and stopped at the gorilla exhibit while the girls finished up their ice cream. The male gorilla was sitting on the grass while the baby gorilla climbed across the structure. He was so cute and it was eerie how similar their motions and actions are to humans.

Just as we were ready to go and we had less than five minutes to go, I realized I had no idea where Sofi B. was! I figured she headed to meet the class, but when I headed to that area she was nowhere to be found. I wasn't really worried that she ran off or was taken, but I did start to stress out that I would be the chaperone who actually lost one of the students at the zoo! We soon discovered that she's walked a short distance on the other side of the gorilla enclosure to get a different view of them. Disaster averted!

We met up with the rest of the kids and teachers and Pritha, Linda and I headed to the car. It was still pretty chilly out and I was glad to get into our car and maybe get a coffee once I got home. It was a fun trip and I think the girls really enjoyed it. I especially loved how much Sofia really got into it and read everything she could on each animal and exhibit. I can't wait to return with the girls over the summer.

Elena, Sofi B, and Sofia ready to explore the zoo