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On Wednesday, March 26th the fourth grade students and teachers, Darcy Schulte and Brandi Rood and student living staff, Tim Moody traveled to Gatlinburg to "Sleep with the Sharks"at Ripley's Aquarium in the Smokies. This was a much anticipated trip as it took many hours of work to get there. This field trip was not free and after doing the math we realized that we would need to have about $700 to go on this trip. Well, the fourth grade was up to the challenge and we got busy working our way to the aquarium. First, we held a two-day car wash. We can't remember how many cars we washed but it was a lot! Next, the fourth graders traveled all over the TSD campus asking teachers and staff to donate $5 in exchange for the ability to wear jeans to school on a Friday (teachers never get to wear jeans to school - unless they pay!).

Many people were willing to help us reach our goal and everyone was so generous! Luke Benson's math class had a "Lemonade Stand"one Friday morning, selling lemonade for $0.25. Their class was learning about money and making change. After the stand closed and all the money had been counted, the class voted on how to best use the money. Guess what??? They voted to donate the money to the fourth grade to help us go on our trip! We were so surprised when they came and told us about it!

The day finally arrived and we left school and started on our trip. We stopped first at Calhoun's restaurant in Gatlinburg for our supper. We had a great meal and a waiter who wanted to learn sign language. After we were all stuffed, we loaded up and headed off to Ripley's. Everyone was so anxious to get there and we had a hard time containing the students' energy and enthusiasm.

The night was filled with many fun and interesting activities. We got to see a dive show where the diver fed the sting rays and she knew a little bit of sign language so she was telling what different things were in the tank. Next, we went to pet the sting rays and the diver met us at the top of the water and gave us a shark egg casing to take back to school and share with our friends. Then, the aquarium closed and we were there all alone! We had a pizza snack and then Lindsey, our instructor from the aquarium, showed us how to dissect a squid! Most of the kids thought it was cool but some thought it was just plain gross. We learned many things about the squid - like it has 3 hearts and a beak inside its tentacles to chew up its food.

Our last activity for the night was a scavenger hunt. We had to go through the entire aquarium to answer all the questions. This was so much fun because we were the only people there. Next it was time to get in our jammies and go to sleep! We took our sleeping bags and pillows and went into the tunnel and made our beds! We had a hard time sleeping because there sharks over our head! We stayed awake for a very long time watching the sharks and the 300 lb. sea turtle named, Sally, swim over us. Finally, we all got to sleep.

The next morning we got dressed and ate breakfast and then Lindsey had another surprise for us! We got to see an animal that was not on display in the aquarium! She brought in several "Moon Jellies". These were jelly fish that did not sting. Lindsey taught us some very important things about all kinds of jelly fish and then she let us all touch the moon jellies.

That was it! It was time for us to go back to school. We had so much fun and we didn't want to leave.

The students and teachers of the fourth grade classes want to say a great, big THANK YOU to everyone for supporting our fundraising for this trip! Your help made a lasting impression on all of us!

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