Sunday, February 20, 2011

Saturday 2/19/11: Busch Garden's Tampa Bay








Our last day! Wow these five days have really gone by fast. I guess that’s what happens when you are having fun. And boy have we had fun. Today was no exception.

As we arrived at Busch Garden’s Tampa, all you could see was a sea of yellow – each and every one of our students were wearing their new Busch Garden’s Adventure Camp Shirts. We had been asked to be part of a photo/video shoot (for a commercial and some other promotional materials) for their summer Adventure Camps. Everyone was very excited and very willingly smiled as the camera and participated in all the activities.

Our first educational experience of the day took us out on the Serengeti, where we visited with Bittiti a female giraffe who loved it when we offered her an early afternoon snack of lots of lettuce. Did you know that each giraffe has their ownunique pattern, just like we have our own unique fingerprints. We also learned the 40-40-40 rules about Ostriches. It takes 40 days for the egg to hatch, they can run 40 mph and they can live to be 40 years old. An Ostrich egg can also hold up to 400 lbs of pressure. At our next stop we got to meet Atlas a Serval – small Cheetah looking cat that can grow to be 30-40 lbs. They are great jumpers and camouflage really well.

Our third and final activity with the educators taught us all about biometrics.

Each group of 4 students was given a different animal skull and by looking at the eye sockets, the ear sockets the nasal passage and the type of teeth the animal had they had to figure out if it was an omnivore, a carnivore or an herbivore. Finally they had to identify which animal. Everyone did really well.

The rest of the day was “free time” spent exploring the park. Busch Gardens has done a wonderful job of mixing animals from Africa, Australia and some other parts of the world, with many fun exciting rides like Shekra and Mantue. Most of our students decided to ride roller coasters, while others (mostly the adults) went to a show with incredible acrobatics and fun effects. There was also time for many to visit the Kangaroos, Gorillas, Tigers, Lions, Alligators, Flamingos and many other amazing animals.

We took one final group picture before getting on the bus to the airport. Checking in took a little while and only gave us about 20 minutes to get dinner (which most of us ate on the plane) before it was time to board our first flight. Many wondered what in the world the adults were up to, as they would not stop laughing during the entire flight. Being overly tired and very happy that we had had such a great week suddenly made everything funny.

We landed at Reagan around 10:20pm and began the final leg of our trip right around 11:10pm. Mike our bus driver got us safely to Hillyard by 1:15 am where students were meet by their parents. Happy and tired - what better way to end this amazing week.

Mrs. Rhodes and Mrs. Nicholas would like to thank each and every one of you for making this trip as great as it was. Thank you students for wanting to go, for wanting to learn and for making this your very special experience. Thank you parents, grandparents and other family members and friends for helping with fundraising and supporting students and chaperons as the prepared for and took the trip. Thank you to our fantastic chaperons – Mr. Baker our assistant principal, Mrs. Bostic and Mrs. Brunk. They did a super job making it so much easier for us teachers during the trip. THANK YOU!!!!!!

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