Riverbanks Zoo Trip

We took a field trip to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC last Friday. I was so excited that Mark was able to come, along with his mom, his brother and his sister's family. It was a great trip!
My favorite part was feeding the birds- we have some great shots of James and Mark with a bird on their arm, and one even landed on Mark's head. James' favorites were the penguins and the bears.


















Bella liked everything- but the highlights were a huge gorilla about a foot away from her (separated by a glass wall of course) and giant tortoises (sp?). She got to pet the tortoises, and screamed bloody murder when we walked away from them. She is just not scared of anything!


Below is a link to our slideshow of all the zoo pictures. (Except for the penguin photos-they are still on the camera!) Just click on the picture, then in the upper right corner, click slideshow.

Birthday and Penguin Lapbook

Wow, January flew by!

James turned 5! Here's a few shots of the bday party.

There is also a shot of the cake I made. It was a treasure themed party, so I made a treasure chest filled with candy. This was the most difficult cake I have made. It kept falling apart on me! Thank goodness for Mark, who rigged up a support system behind the cake. It would have been a disaster without his help.


The Penguin study was a huge success! James really soaked up all the info!

Here are a few shots of our finished lapbook.






Left Side:
We labeled an emperor penguin's body parts and colored.

Below that is some mini books with penguin trivia. You lift up the flaps for the answers.

On the Right Side are several worksheets. This top one is a practice page for "P" and "Penguin"






Flip the worksheets over, and it opens up to more penguin mini books...

On the right side, a cut and paste penguin activity...

And our penguin buddies we made as a craft to show countershading.










Flip it open one last time,

More mini books,

And a book about penguins we made the penguins with his thumbprint.

Behind the book is a pocket to keep all our games, which are shown out to the side.




We will be going to zoo next Friday. There is a penguin exhibit there, so it will neat to go there and see them in person now that we know so much about them.