SEA Life Aquarium Field Trip

To end our ocean unit, we took a field trip into Phoenix to visit the aquarium found in the Arizona Mills Mall.
The aquarium was still closed when we arrived, but the fun paintings on the walls and the few small tanks you could look in from the outside, were enough to get everyone excited!

We read some ocean stories while we waited for them to open and for everyone to get there. We went right into a classroom to learn some interesting ocean facts and to hear some rules. Then we were able to walk all through the aquarium on our own and see all that there was to see. It was so great being the first group of the day because we had the entire place to ourselves. Just my two classes were there and it was so fun!!

There was lots to see, like sea horses, the sea turtle, sharks, an octopus, and lots and lots of rays.

Then, we met back up in the giant play area found at the end. It was big enough for everybody and a perfect place to gather back up again before heading to lunch.
Lunch was little bit crazy in the food court of the mall because of the other field trips that had also arrived. However, we were all patient and got everyone fed eventually.

The last place we visited was the Rainforest Cafe.
Since we are going to start a rain forest unit very soon, it was fun to see the animals outside of the restaurant. We saw the parrots, snakes, elephants, gorillas, and of course the robotic alligator at the front. We all threw pennies into his mouth.
It was a fun day that tired all of the preschoolers out. It is so fun to see the things we learned about in class come to life for these preschoolers. They had so much fun telling their families and me all about the ocean creatures they had learned about in class. Hopefully, this field trip is something they will always remember as they remember their preschool years.