POOP!

Big day! We touched poop!

But let's rewind a little! Yes, today was poop-filled, but more importantly, we were able to meet an amazing animal ... Lucy the Asian Elephant!

This morning Teacher Courtney shared something serious. Elephants are endangered. Habitat loss and poaching were two ideas we explored together. We learned that some people choose to kill elephants for their tusks. 

An ivory statue and a tusk

Rather than buy ivory, people could make better and more caring choices. Elephant fans could instead buy a painting done by an elephant, write notes on "poo poo" paper made from elephant dung, or even buy carvings made from the taiga nut, which looks similar to ivory and also provides meaningful work to individuals in South America. 

Then we HELD ELEPHANT POOP! We held it!! Big day!!!!

Before meeting Lucy up close, we spent a few quiet minutes sketching and labeling her in her enclosure. 

Then it happened. We finally met Lucy!!!! 

We asked loads of questions, sang for her, and were absolutely enamored! Did you know she plays ball?

Before lunch, we went to see our chosen animal that we journal each day, but today our journaling was digital! Rather than write 3 words describing what our animal is doing, we took pictures on our iPads to show what our animal was doing. Then we assembled them using PicCollage! So exciting!

These meerkats were sleeping, standing, and scratching!

We gobbled up our lunches and were excited to meet Frodo, a 24 year-old Central Asian Tortoise! He was trying to find a gap in our circle and make a break for it! We continued our digital journaling with Frodo!

At the end of each day, Teacher Courtney has asked to journal our top moments using paper and pencil. Today, however, we did this digitally! The students were very engaged and motivated!

This student's Top 4 moments were meeting
Lucy & Frodo and seeing the tigers & seals. 

Today was a blast! How it is Thursday already?!?

We Touched Poop!!!

Big day! We touched poop!

But let's rewind a little! Yes, today was poop-filled, but more importantly, we were able to meet an amazing animal ... Lucy the Asian Elephant!

This morning Teacher Courtney shared something serious. Elephants are endangered. Some people choose to kill elephants for their tusks. Each day 96 elephants are killed in Africa for their ivory. 

An ivory decoration and a tusk

We learned that, rather than buy ivory, people could make better and more caring choices. Elephant fans could instead buy a painting done by an elephant, write notes on "poo poo" paper made from elephant dung, or even buy carvings made from the taiga nut, which looks similar to ivory and also provides meaningful work to individuals in South America. 

We journaled ways we can make choices to help animals, every single day!

(1) No Litter / Pick up garbage
(2) Throwing paper in the recycling
(3) Do not chop down trees
(4) Don't buy ivory

Then we explored the similarities and differences between an African and an Asian elephant. 

Then we HELD ELEPHANT POOP! We held it!! Big day!!!!

Then it happened. We finally met Lucy!!!! We asked questions, danced the Macarena for her, and gave her a maple-extract popsicle! Ask your child what she did with it!

Can you see the caramel-coloured popsicle chunks
in the two right pics?

We welcomed in Dean, aka. "Zoo Royalty", who has been working with the Edmonton Valley Zoo for over 30 years and has tremendous knowledge and infinite experience!

Dean taught us how the zoo safely captures animals for their medical checkups and treatments! We saw Dean demo hoop nets, control poles, and even some blow dart pipes (which aren't typically used but are oh, so super cool!). 

Dean, you are so passionate about animal care! Thank you for your visit!

We had a quick lunch, and then headed out to observe our chosen animals! We were even able to write stories about them today!

After lunch we saw the zoo's compost area, where animal bedding, waste and much more go! Bacteria helps the waste beak down into dirt. Can you believe it? Lucy was down there exploring! What a gal!

Today was a blast! How it is Thursday already?!?