I have been looking forward to taking them out on the day trip to Kew Gardens myself for some time so I was promptly out of the door this morning. It was a two hour drive through some pretty abysmal traffic to get there but we arrived in good spirits with 20 minutes to spare, which was good, because we had gone to the wrong entrance. We bumped into a friend and her children and the staff at Elizabeth gate were very helpful indeed, they checked us out and once verified, allowed us to walk to the other gate to save us time. Once again, it was the beginning of a new day and all the children were really excited to see each other. They were running around, chasing each other with sticks and burning up their pent up energy from the long car drive and the early (for us - 7.30am) start.
The trees at Kew are incredible and worth remarking on. There were so many varieties of Oak, still recognisable as Oak from the acorns but not (to me) the leaves. This was an Indian Bean tree, very beautiful and unusual.
As a group, once we were organised, we made our way to the treetop walk. On approach, the children could see the walkway up high and excitedly ran towards it. Here is Caden walking down it. You could see through the metal sheeting at your feet to the ground, not for sufferers of vertigo.
Complete with stick... all the kids had their own sticks.
Doing the circular walk and reading the cast metal plaques that were placed around it. There were biological facts on each one.
After we completed the walk, we found a tunnel with unusual shapes in, so we went to check it out. Caden found a piece of wood. He felt it on his cheek with that expression. I love this boy!!!!
We found a wonderful sculpture/display which represented the symbiotic relationship between fungi and plants. Plants give the fungi sugar for food and fungi synthesise nutrients for the plants.
This was a glass mosaic intended to show the mutually beneficial relationships between fungi and plants called Micorizza.
We found a rather far out looking wasp catcher (we presume) in the woods.
Climbing trees (we did ask them to get down).
Then it was the rainforest workshop. You can see there is a large, inflatable globe in the middle of the photo. The kids located rainforests and discussed in large groups the things they knew. The things we discussed included what we get from the rainforest and a brief description of respiration was talked about. The children were using the words Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide as part of the discussion. There was also a discussion about the energy production within a plant though the word photosynthesis didn't come up, the fact that it is the leaf and that the sun is involved was discussed. It surprises me how little is talked about in these processes as part of the curriculum at KS2 (which Caden isn't quite a part of yet, he would have been just starting as a young one in Year 2 this year). I often think that the national curriculum just covers the real basics of subjects and doesn't give enthusiastic children the chance to learn much more. Caden and I have been talking about photosynthesis for some time, though he doesn't understand it yet, when he is ready to, he will see the language we use to describe the process as normal and hopefully understanding the process will be more accessible to him.
I would like to say that I thought the leader/teacher was very talented at classroom management. There was a large range of ages, from about 5 to 10 and there were intelligent and forceful characters in the room who demanded a lot of her time. I thought that she dealt with it kindly and in a way that all the children still felt that they had really been personally engaged with. I was very impressed with her and with her knowledge.
We were shown tables with activities on and got to it. We had to match the items in the shopping basket with raw ingredients that came from the rainforest. A very every-day, life-relevant task I thought.
Here the children are learning about Annatto, Caden saw that his hands had gone orange and learned that this is a colouring agent that the food industry uses to colour some of its products.
They learned about tamarind, cacao (though we use raw chocolate at home so Caden knows a bit about this one), plantain and coffee beans. It was great that the children got to hold the raw foods, smell them and take part in the activities in an unstructured way. This worked with the smaller group and I thought the leader made a good call. The kids did benefit from following things at their pace, some flitted about taking it all in and others (like Caden) stayed on one or two activities and got really engaged with it.
Here is Caden feeling the 'bum seed', yes really!! He was lucky to get a chance to hold it. It is called the Coco de Mer or Sea coconut. Trust Caden to go for that one though!
Then we made our way as a group to the temperate rainforest in the glass house. We learned that there are 16,000 panes of glass in the structure. The gardens outside were spectacular.
We learned that this was an edible banana flower. It was like nothing we had seen before.
The leader demonstrated how leaves are waterproof and pointed out the drip tip.
Here Caden is reading about the rubber plant, this was an example of something that the rainforest gave us.
We were shown baby pineapples growing and we talked about the habitats of poison dart frogs.
Then we looked at the Cacao plant and it's pods. (Chocolate)
The children were given raw (unprocessed) cacao seeds from a plant, not like the raw, slightly cleaned up ones you buy from a raw food shop. They weren't too keen on the smell.
Caden was asked to hold a picture of papayas for the group to see. He read the word on the card before anyone else could say what the fruit was.
Caden and his friend outside. They had a great time together today!
After the workshop we went to the marine aquarium to look at fish and sea creatures. Miles had been looked after by a friend and his daughter while I looked after their son, so we met them there.
Looking at jellyfish.
Miles looking at jellies.... upside down ones.
They loved the razor fish. They are funny little things that swim vertically, like they are hopping. Fascinating to watch.
The pufferfish which Caden said was smiling.
Beautiful water lily garden.
and the day was completed with an hour at the indoor play area, all biology themed!
We had a truly excellent day today. The kids were shattered but asked if we could stay and then if we could go back soon when they realised we couldn't stay. We would love to return again soon for another workshop if there are any more in the future.
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