Zoo Show

Coventry Grammar School students and staff made friends with some very special creatures on January 7, thanks to morning and afternoon presentations by husband-and-wife team Larry Records and Lee Burpee, the owners and operators of Records & Burpee Traveling Children’s Zoo from Dudley, Massachusetts.  These presentations, made possible through the generosity of our PTO and its successful fundraising efforts, gave our students the amazing opportunity of seeing “up close” birds, reptiles, and mammals, several of which they might never get to see in person.  Sherman the Tortoise, Einstein the llama, and Huckabee the newborn pygmy goat may have been more familiar animals for many Coventry children.  However, Wally the caiman, Slider the boa constrictor (and two slithering friends), Cracker the macaw, Chipmunk the squirrel monkey, Rocky the anteater, and (perhaps the ‘star’ of the show) Baby the python elicited cheers and cries of wonder.

Not only did the presenters walk around the gym so that the boys and girls could get a good look at each creature, Larry and Lee also shared many facts about the different animals’ feeding habits, habitats, camouflage, and representative behaviors – the categories our students focus on during their Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2 animal study units.  Larry and Lee made the point that most wild animals could never make good household pets because of the kind of care and environment they would need.