Zoo Class

Halloween morning I took Linus to Miss Spider's Tea Party at the zoo. Each kid got a name tag that was a die cut spider made out of orange paper. It was Linus' first name tag! There were hunks of orange play-doh at the tables and kids were instructed to play with it until class started. Linus was more interested in playing with the stuffed zoo animals on a zoo themed rug. He would grab one, run it over to me, then run back for another. He said hippo for the first time when he brought me the hippo one.

Once we got underway, we all gathered on the rug that featured zoo animals reading books. The instructor handed out two laminated bug pictures to each kid. As she read through Miss Spider's Tea Party, the kids with the bug on that page got to run up and stick their bug on the fuzzy board (there was velcro on the backs of the bugs). Linus had one of the bug that got called first. I sent him up on his own with it, figuring the instructor could guide him. She wasn't needed because after seeing what the other kid did, Linus confidently stuck his beetle up there. Then he bent down, grabbed something, and ran back to me. He had a bee puppet. Linus had the second bug that was called up, a lightning bug. After he was done with this task he wasn't interested in the book any longer. There was too much text for him. Instead, we went to the back of the room and played with the stuffed animals and he crawled on and off of the little kid chairs at the tables.

Then there was what was labeled a "take home craft," which turned out to be making a spider out of an Oreo and little red licorice sticks. He gobbled up the cookie as soon as he got it. Curious about how he ate his first Oreo? He separated the halves, ate the one without the filling, then licked off the filling, and ate the other half.

Lastly, the kids got to see a tarantula up close in a little cage. This was the point of my signing Linus up for this. I wanted him to get a good look at a spider. He couldn't see it very well because 2, 3, and 4 year olds were in front of him. As soon as the instructor set the cage down, Linus ran up behind her and plopped down in front of the cage to check out the spider. I was impressed at his confidence to pursue his desire.

I was feeling sad for Stephanie that bee has taken Winthrop-Linus'-Monkey's place and so I asked Linus if he could say Stephanie. He said it two differerent ways: Stemp-hee and Stemp-nee. Stephanie, I hope this makes up for it!