Hi All,
      Since it's summer, I'm playing catch up.  I meant to blog about this place last month.  If you're looking for a great experience for kids and you haven't been to IMMS, you might want to consider it.  IMMS is the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies.  It's located in Gulf Port, Mississippi.
      We went with my daughter's girl scout troop.  It was a really fun educational experience for the kids;0).  You spend the night (everyone brings sleeping bags & it's like a big slumber party).  The program is called Dozing with Dolphins.  The kids learn the basics of rescuing dolphins, they get to touch sting rays, sharks, & a baby alligator.  They spend the night at the museum.  Your group arrives @ 7pm & they have activities planned til midnight. In the morning you get to see the seals & dolphins.  Here are photos:

There was a shallow pool with stingrays & sharks for the children to touch.  They also got to feed the sharks.  FYI the sharks were babies.

There was an area where the kids could dig for sharks teeth.  They could choose 1 to take home.

The kids painted t-shirts using fish and starfish stampers

They got to touch a baby alligator.

This is the touch pool.

There's a seal show & a dolphin show.  1 or 2 kids can volunteer to touch one of the dolphins.

The presenters used this fake dolphin to demonstrate how to rescue a beached dolphin.  Then, the girls practiced dolphin rescue. This was a really great field trip.  Special thanks to my daughters girl scout troop leader; she is AWESOME!!!  We only paid $30 per person for this experience.  If anyone is interested in Dozing with the Dolphins at the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies (IMMS) click the banner below to visit their website: Thanks for stopping by! Asia

      Well, we've been talking about pumpkins for about 2 weeks now.  We've read pumpkin stories, learned pumpkin songs, made pumpkin crafts, planted pumpkin seeds, and just about anything you can think to do with a pumpkin.

      So today was the big day; a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch!  I was excited myself because even though I've been teaching for years; this was actually my first time visiting the pumpkin patch.  As an early interventionist,  I don't always have kids that I can bring out.  I've really been blessed this year.  No pull-ups, running and melt downs are minimal, and I have very helpful parents.

      The pumpkin patch was awesome!  The kids had a wonderful time.  We did a hay ride, picked pumpkins, the kids ran around the pumpkin patch, and we enjoyed a picnic lunch.  We had a wonderful day!