Learning is Exhausting!

Last day and boy, were we thrilled to spend one more day learning together at Zoo School!

First thing on our schedule? As a group we had to fairly agree upon a new animal to observe, sketch, and label, and then compare to our original animal. 

Comparing the seals to the meerkats

Comparing wallabys to snowy owls -
as a bonus, we saw the baby wallaby in mama's pouch!

Comparing the lemurs to the snow leopard

Back in the classroom, we met Aiden, a crested gecko! This funky little reptile has sticky feet for climbing and lacks eyelids ... any guesses on how he keeps his eyeballs moist? (hint - it involves his tongue!)

Then Teacher Courtney surprised us. We got 45 minutes of free time to explore the zoo!!!!!

Then Teacher Courtney tasked us with a very important job ... making animal enrichments! At times, animals can become a bit bored, just like us. An enrichment is something that is novel for the animal!

We decorated two "holey" tubes, adding a bit of sweet smelling extracts to make the tubes more interesting! One was for the meerkats and the other for the squirrel monkeys! 

The meerkats' enrichment was filled with crickets and the squirrel monkeys' filled with meal worms! Both animals LOVED what we made! SO fun to watch! 

Squirrel monkey enrichment

Meerkat enrichment

Today we also met many beautiful animals. 

We met Twilah, the three-banded armadillo! She is a little nocturnal beauty who can curl completely into a ball! Mrs. Beliveau LOVED her!!!

We also met Summer the barn owl! He is an excellent hunter, because of his spectacular eye sight and hearing! One ear is higher and the other lower, allowing Summer to create a 3D map using sound! In fact, barn owls have the best recorded hearing out of any animal in the world!

We ran into a Eurasian Owl as we walked back ... impromptu animal encounters rock at the zoo!

Zoo School was truly amazing, and we came home absolutely exhausted every day! Yes, all of the walking was tiring and we also got a tonne of fresh air, but a huge part of WHY we were so tuckered was because of HOW we learned. 

Each day we asked questions, and then puzzled over the answers! We wondered, we were curious, we thought critically, we predicted, and we hypothesized. Inquiry drove our week! 

As we prepare to return to our classroom, we are so thankful for the opportunity we had to learn at Zoo School!