Today 9R had their class trip to Blackpool Zoo!

We started our day off bright and early, driving in the mini bus to the zoo and dropping our lunches off in the Darwin Centre. We saw lots of amazing animals as we began to explore the zoo, including lots of different exotic birds and monkeys and the meerkats, which quickly became a class favourite. From there we headed through the Wallaby Walk, where both wallabies and kangaroos were able to free roam so we could get up close to lots of incredible animals.

After this it was time for the sea lion feeding and talk so we headed to the Active Oceans arena and listened to a very informative talk all about California sea lions and we watched them do lots of tricks, like catching hoops, balancing balls on their noses and even handstands! Staying with the aquatic animals we then listened to a talk on the Humboldt penguin as we watched them being fed and then we got the opportunity to look at some emperor penguin feathers as well as some replica penguin eggs. Next to the ocean exhibits were Gorilla Mountain and the Ape House, where the orangutans were housed, so we made our way through them, talking about how they were similar to us. We also used our knowledge of deforestation and palm oil, from our Understanding of the World unit, to talk about how great apes like gorillas and chimpanzees were endangered and how places like zoos were helping to rehabilitate them.

After a quick stop for lunch, we made our way past the camels and llamas to the aviary which housed a number of exotic and native birds that were free flying above our heads and we even got to see a couple of caimans. Then it was on to Lemur Wood, another free roaming area for animals, so we carefully made our way through, stopping to look at the lemurs and asking one of the zoo keepers lots of questions about the animals and learning loads of interesting facts, including why lemurs have orange eyes (for night vision) and how long their tails are (lots of different lengths apparently). 

Our next stop was to see the giraffes, which we got to look at both from the ground and also from the elevated walkways where we got to see one of them eating. The giraffes at the zoo ranged from 4.5 to 6 metres high so we got to see them up close from the tree top walkway and from inside their house. The last stop of the day was to the new elephant house that is currently home to 6 elephants. we found out that some of them are over 40 years old and that it was Kate the elephants birthday today! We watched them eating and playing with branches and even had time to have a quick look at the dinosaurs on the way out. After a quick trip to the gift shop it was time for home and a good long sit down after a lot of walking!

9R had a wonderful end of year trip and the sun was shining all day!

9Rs Trip to the Zoo