A DAY AT THE ZOO ZOO ZOO!

Field trips are a great way to bring excitement and adventure to the learning process. Especially, it is more important for young children to be engaged in ways that deepen their understanding of their own experiences and environment.Our mission was to expose the children to the things that are typically not a part of their every-day environment. Oh! And not to forget to tag the FUN part to the mission. So, the idea of the zoo trip conceived. On a run up for children's day, we, the pre-primary group, chose to visit the Nehru zoological park in our very own hitech Hyderabad. Apart from our first field trip to the KBR park in Jubilee hills, this was the second and perhaps the best one. While in school, we engaged the kids in several pre-trip activities to get them prepared and to build up their excitement. We read books, played videos and sang songs and were ramping up for our visit to the zoo scheduled for Nov 7th, 2014. The count down to the big day started with the invitations sent out with their bring along check-lists.

The children eagerly waited for the day to arrive and bingo the attendance was in full. It was a bright sunny day. The bus rides were smooth and non-chaotic. Sure they enjoyed their morning snack on the way to the zoo singing along "We are going to the zoo, zoo, zoo.... How about you, you, you ????? You can come too, too, too. We bought the tickets and waited for our turn to step into the animal world. The children were given instructions to keep the premises clean and not to feed the animals. 

We trudged in with our various bags and booked ourselves to board the environment friendly battery operated vehicles in groups of approximately 15. We anxiously waited for our turn. Soon it was time to board the battery operated van, and we set off. Our first stop was at the charismatic elephants. Their enclosures were huge and the animals were sighted far from sight but never too far for the young and watchful eyes.We got to see the grizzly bears, Royal bengal tigers, white tigers, lions,leopards chimpanzees, rhinos, hippos,  peacocks and giraffe. There were plenty of deer, emus and birds. All along singing to the tunes of " There were monkeys in the zoo and there were nobody around......"

Walking on we saw crocodiles taking a sun bath and moved on to see the reptiles like snakes, iguanas. Most animals were kept in large outdoor enclosures or fenced enclosures while the birds were kept in cages and reptiles in glass cases. All the children thoroughly enjoyed watching all the animals. Some they watched in awe and some in trepidation. We clicked tons of pictures for memories. We had our lunch in a tree shade and packed up.

After walking around for the entire day and seeing so many animals and birds, we were very tired, but were equally excited and happy. On their ride back, most of them dozed off tired from a day filled with fun and excitement. All the children had the best possible experience they could have. We had a wonderful trip visiting the zoo and we would cherish the nice time we spent there.So what we are going to dream about next is perhaps a petting zoo in line.

Kamala Manda