The National Zoo

In our morning time, we have been using Around the World With Picture Books by Beautiful Feet Books. We began with China and have read some wonderful picture books, including The Story About Ping, Ming Lo Moves the Mountain, and The Seven Chinese Brothers. The Teacher Guide suggested studying pandas as part of the China unit and I realized we had the best resource ever for studying giant pandas. 

The Smithsonian National Zoo is an amazing attraction in D.C. Admission to the zoo is free, though parking is not. Many families who live in the area opt for a zoo membership, known as Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ), because the membership privileges include parking. 

The National Zoo is home to quite a wide variety of animals, but it is particularly well-known for its three giant pandas. Mei Xiang and Tian Tian are the parents of four-year-old Bei Bei. On our trip, we were able to listen to a zoo keeper talk at Bei Bei's pen and, happily, Bei Bei joined him. The pandas have a gorgeous and large outside area to wander about, but they also have the choice to remain indoors. To encourage Bei Bei to remain inside while the zoo keeper spoke, another keeper passed frozen sugar cane to Bei Bei through a small window in his pen. As you can see from the pictures below, the sugar cane kept Bei Bei sufficiently occupied. 

We learned so much about pandas during the zoo keeper talk. We learned that once Bei Bei was a year and a half, he was separated from his mother and lives on his own because bears are solitary creatures and do not live together. We learned that pandas eat constantly because they are carnivorous animals that have a vegetative diet. No one is certain why pandas switched from meat to bamboo (a grass), but it was likely due to what was available to eat.

While Anne thought the pandas were adorable, she was very focused on seeing elephants. I don't know why she had such a fascination with elephants, but that's pretty much all she talked about from the moment she found out we were going to the zoo. So after seeing the pandas, we headed for the elephants. We watched them spray water, throw dirt on themselves and stand very, very still. I've decided elephants are very good at standing very, very still.

We enjoyed seeing many other animals as well. Meg loved the prairie dogs. We were fascinated watching the cheetahs. A black squirrel wandered into the cheetah pin and one of the cheetahs went into pouncing position and ran at full cheetah speed after the squirrel. I am happy to say the squirrel escaped under the fence.

We visited the American bison and decided that they related nicely to our recent Little House on the Prairie adventures. The girls also loved the small mammal house which included things such as lemurs, porcupines and naked mole rats. As always, we loved the lions. 

At the very end of our trip, the girls enjoyed riding the zoo carousel and playing in the bee-themed playground. While tired by this point in the outing, they got their second wind and had a great time.