Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo!

This week Hannah went on a field trip with her class for the very first time since she was 5yo and in JK.  I was excited when her teacher invited me to join them as a parent volunteer.

The day was overcast yet a perfect temperature and the zoo was empty!  In our past experiences we’ve always need to dodge other people to see the animals so it was such a treat to walk up to exhibits without fighting crowds.

The day was really well organized and run too.  We started with about a 30 min session in a classroom where the children learned about habitation, migration and more.  This picture brings tears to my eyes as Hannah is adding a picture to the board after raising her hand and answering a question. In the 4 years that I have helped in her classes I think I can count on one hand the number of times that I have seen Hannah raise her hand to answer a question or participate in class this way.   She’s always been concerned with not giving the correct answer so she just wouldn’t offer an answer.  Her teacher this year has been working with her to help her gain confidence in answering questions and it was breath taking to sit back and see Hannah not only raise her hand more than once!  Thank you Ashley!!!

After the classroom session we headed out in small groups to visit the animals.  Each small group was assigned a zoo worker who discussed things they had been taught in the classroom. 

Our first visit was to see the baby pandas who are now about 18 months old. 

My how they’ve grown since we saw them a year ago!

From there we saw a number of other animals. 

I am so thankful for this day with Hannah as well as the opportunity to get to know her classmates a little better.