2nd Grade Field Trip to Cook's Museum, Wilson Morgan Park and Wheeler Wildlife Refuge

Our first field trip of the year was for Jackson's second grade class. We traveled to Decatur, AL and went to the Cook's Wildlife Museum. The teachers try to take a trip that coordinates with the AMSTI curriculum they are covering in class. AMSTI is Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative and we have AMSTI certified teachers that we are quite proud of. Currently the students are learning to identify characteristics of insects and animals. One of my favorite things about Highland Park Elementary is how they get the kids out of the classroom and afford them experiences many of the students have never had. As they say "Highland Park is a Great Place to Learn!". We stopped at Wilson Morgan Park for lunch and it gave the kids a chance to run off some energy.

This year our class T-shirts are a vibrant lime green. I think that is great! This color will be easy to pick out of a group of kids running on the playground. Jackson found an alligator that looked pretty ferocious.
Jackson was so excited to meet up with his "BFF" (per Jackson) while at the museum. It was so cute to watch them walk around and look at the displays. He misses having Aaron in his class this year.
Ok, this was one of my favorite things today. There were other butterfly photos, but I didn't think you would want to see them all. Hey, I figure if I am going on the trips I can enjoy it too.

This was the beautiful entrance to a path we took at the Wheeler Wildlife Refuge. By the way, did you know Alabama is #1 in something among all 50 states, besides the alphabet?.....We have 27 species of snakes in our state, the most of any.....This would probably be great IF YOU LIKED SNAKES, I don't. This could have been a little bit of info to know prior to moving here. Oh, yeah I learned all sorts of wonderful facts today.

This was our other favorite thing to see, the Japanese Bamboo. On the left of the photo is gigantic bamboo shooting into the sky. It is beautiful and many people like to have it on their land, until it takes over. It is an exotic invasive plant that they are trying to control the growth of. That being said it is very unusual and interesting.