Trip to Axe Valley

In November Class One went on a fantastic trip to Axe Valley Wildlife Park.  We were joined by our Jubilee Federation schools Broadhembury C of E Primary School and Farway C of E Primary School.  This provided a perfect opportunity for the KS1 children to meet each other and learn together.  This trip links in with our topic of ‘The Carnival of the Animals’ and our Literacy focus this term on African animals.  

On arrival the children experienced a very informative and hands on experience with some of the park’s inhabitants.  The children were able to handle and touch various creatures and animals and learn about their diet, habitat and behaviour.  The children really enjoyed watching Archie the Armadillo trotting around the enclosure and learnt that armadillos need to go around new environments at least twenty times before they remember where all the obstacles are!  It was wonderful to hear the many interesting and focused questions posed by the children to the education team at the park.

In the afternoon, the children enjoyed exploring the rest of the park and answering the quiz questions which encouraged them to read the signs and find the answers in the text. The children have all really enjoyed learning about Sunny the meerkat from the text ‘Meerkat Mail’ in our Literacy lessons and were enthralled by the antics of the meerkats at the park.  We were given the opportunity to feed the meerkats, observe their behaviour and ask many questions.  This research and experience will be used back in class in the next few weeks as the children plan and prepare their non-chronological reports about meerkats.