Zoo Day!

Caitrin gently chastised me about not getting to the zoo in September. She entered it on our calendar four times and not a single one turned into a zoo day. So when I saw that Johannah would be brought home by the driver for her driver's training, I seized the moment and today, we spent at the zoo.

Liam is in heaven at the zoo. He would live there, I'm convinced. He knows things about animals that I had no idea he knew, nor do I know why or how he knows them! The white lions are always a treat. We saw the males sunning themselves today, since it's Thursday.

We enjoyed the Asian elephants and were amazed at just how many animals are endangered. I took lots of notes to help us process our time there tomorrow. We also went on a zoo scavenger hunt where we chose animals and animal traits to look for while walking. That was really fun!

On the way to the zoo, Jacob brought Mad Libs and we did two of them. Caitrin had to ask every time "What is a noun again?" By the end of both pages, I think she had it. Then as we walked through the zoo, we'd say a descriptive word related to an animal and shout: adjective! And so on. It was a great reinforcement for parts of speech.

Some interesting facts:

• The okapi lives in my old African neck of the woods—Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire)
  
• A mammal that lives on both land and in the sea is a Harbor Seal. A fresh water mammal who lives in rivers and on land is the River Otter.
  
• Bongos and Gian Elands both have cloven hooves.
  
• The manatee has a nictitating membrane that enables them to see clearly under water the way a mask does for us.
  
• Equus means horse which is the word used to describe the African Zebra as well.