Fun, cool, awesome, exciting, hot, great, big, noisy, smelly, fences, and
green grass are just a few words that describe the Bronx Zoo.  The Bronx Zoo
was opened in 1899 and is the largest city zoo in the world.  It is located
in the Bronx, which is part of New York City and across a river from
Manhattan.  The zoo is open 365 days a year and covers 265 acres.  It has
over 4,000 animals, including some of the world's most endangered species.
You can learn about how animals live in the wild.  It is a perfect place for
families to learn about the animals of the world!

Last year, we went to the Bronx Zoo for a field trip.  To get there from New
Jersey, our bus crossed the George Washington Bridge and drove through part
of the city.  On the way there, you see lots of people that are walking,
lots of graffiti, and cars jammed in on the sidewalk.  The Bronx Zoo is
right in the middle of the city. When you get there, there are lots of cars
in the parking lot

The Bengali Express is a monorail through the African part of the Bronx Zoo.
When we went on the Bengali Express, we had to wait for 45 minutes to get on
because there were so many people on the line!!  When you're on the
monorail, you feel like you're in a jungle because there are trees all
around you.  The animals are not in cages, and you are riding above them.
We saw a tiger named Norma, who had just had a cub!  We saw red pandas,
elephants, gazelle, apes, rhinos, and more.  This ride was very slow, but
very fun.  We went over a river and through the woods.  It did not seem like
we were in the middle of a big city.  There were about eleven cars that held
about 12 people each.  The people were jammed in every car.  When the ride
was over we wanted to go again.

The Bronx zoo has many other rides and activities, and one of our favorites
was the skyride. Riding the skyride is like seeing a huge map of the Bronx
Zoo without letters or numbers. It shows where things are and shows what
everything looks like.  The zoo is an enormous place.  We saw animals from
up high like lions, bears, tigers, pandas, deer, monkeys, and alligators.
The skyline is the only place in the Bronx Zoo where you can see the city.
You can see tall, brick buildings outside of the zoo.

At the Bronx Zoo there is also a children's zoo. When we went there a person
showed us baby bird shells. There is a petting and feeding zoo, and some of
us touched goats, hens, roosters, sheep and rabbits.  You could go into a
cave and hear the sounds of tigers, bears and birds.  You could climb up a
spider web, but if you're legs slipped through you got stuck!  In the
children's zoo, you can learn what it is like to be an animal.

There are a lot of different smells and sounds at the Bronx Zoo.  You can
hear kids screaming and see them running all over the place.  You can hear
the monkeys screeching and smell the camels and the elephants.  Some of the
smells are pretty bad!  When we went to the zoo, a lot of people did
different things.  Some people went on a camel ride, and some people saw the
seal feeding.  The sea lions get fed every day at the zoo.  The trainers
make them do tricks before they will give them treats.  The seals make very
loud barking sounds.

All over the park there are stands to sell pretzels, cotton candy, hot dogs,
chips, nachos, french fries, hamburger, chicken, soda, milk shakes, candy
and funnel cakes.  Funnel cakes look sort of like a pretzel, but it's a cake
with lots of sugar on it.  You can buy food all day long if you want to, and
some people probably gained a lot of weight at the zoo that day!  The food
that tastes the best are chicken and mozzarella sticks.  The drinks that
taste the best are milk shakes and soda.  The candy that tastes the best are
Hershey's chocolate and gum and twizzlers.  You can smell food all over the
zoo.

Before we got back on the bus, we could buy souvenirs.  Some people bought
water bottles, stuffed animals, T-shirts, pens, rubber snakes and postcards.
Some people felt sick on the bus because we had just eaten.  Everybody
talked on the bus on the way home about all of the different animals we had
seen (and smelled!) that day.

 4th grade enrichment class


 

 
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