The Zoo Trip

Today was a big day for the ISS Junior Kindergarteners. We marked the end of our fourth and final unit, "It's a Small World" (the insect unit) with a trip to Stuttgart's zoo, the Wilhelma.
It was a huge day, but a triumph for our Junior Kindergarteners!
Amazingly, we traveled to the zoo via U-Bahn (Stuttgart's tram system.) It is incredibly frightening to herd 28 four and five-year-olds on to and off a train, especially when you have to change trains! But no worries, we made it there, all with seats, and all together!
We arrived at the zoo just in time for snack at 9:30 am. Once we entered the zoo, we made our way first to the elephants.

Then, we made our way to see the tigers, and other big cats.

After the big cats, we made our way over to the apes and monkeys. All the kids loved the monkeys, apes, gorillas, and orangutans. After the primates, we stopped for lunch. It seems quick, but by then, it was already very hot, and the kids were getting tired and hungry. Following lunch, we took all 28 of our Junior Kindergarten monkeys to the playground. The playground there was quite nice, and the kids really enjoyed the run-around.



We then made our way over to the Insectarium, to see our Unit of Inquiry come to life. The kids really enjoyed the butterfly house. They all were willing to stand still in the hopes a butterfly would land on their head or hand. Even more exciting to us though was the occasional soft butterfly songs the kids were singing as they looked at the beautiful creatures.

Once we finished our tour of the butterfly hall, it was time to make our way back to the exit. We had 28 very exahusted kids! All in all, it was quite an enjoyable day. And of course a wonderful end-of-year activity.