Second Grade Goes to the Aquarium

My most favorite field trip each year is taking the kids to the Georgia Aquarium. It is such a neat sight to see their faces light up at the new creatures they see. We missed our original field trip day because most of the morning was spent out in the hallway tornado drill style thanks to our good friend Fay. Although she brought some much needed rain we were forced to postpone the trip downtown.

We began Friday morning hoping that hurricane Hannah wouldn't change her mind and make a beeline for Atlanta and thankfully had a beautiful sunny day. We headed to the buses, loaded up, and made the surprisingly quick drive down through the city. The kids were so excited to go through the toll and drive under the tunnels. It's fun to see a bus ride through their eyes! When we got to the aquarium we had to wait around a bit for them to print our tickets but then we went inside and started the tour. Last year we went through the Learning Loop which takes you behind the scenes and shows you how the aquarium runs. We were going to do that again but when we rescheduled the trip there was no room =(

I took my little group of five to my favorite exhibits and we started in the coral reef room. I love walking around the corner and seeing the blue tanks filled with jellyfish. There was also a diver in the big tank giving it a good clean. One little girl kept asking me if the animals were real and for some reason wouldn't believe me that they were. From there we went to watch the whale sharks swimming around and it happened to be feeding time. It was cool to see that they knew which color scoop had their food in it and then to see them follow it around the tank sucking in their meal.

We also got to see the beluga whales, sea otters, and penguins before it was time for lunch. After a quick meal of ham sammies and milk we went into the theater for the 4-D show. If you have never been, be prepared to get a little wet-- and also for some screams! I could only watch the movie through one eye because the 3-D glasses were making me a bit ill, but it was fun nonetheless. It seemed like the morning flew by and it was already time to go back to school after the movie. We found out some bad news once we got back from some onlookers in the hallway that we would be the only ones getting to go to the aquarium this year. Due to budget cuts, Fulton County has had to do away with out of school field trip! The other grades were a little jealous, but maybe we'll all get to go back next year!