Year 1 Zoo Excursion - Donnybrook and Kalkallo
Year 1 students have been investigating the features of living things and how these features are suited to different environments.
They have been reading books about animals during English sessions, where they have thought about these animals whilst learning to summarise and identify the main idea of the text. Whilst working in groups, students have been reading books and taking notes about animals such as dolphins, mice, pandas, and monkeys. The students used their research to write information reports about their chosen animals and included labelled diagrams explaining the features of a range of animals.
To further investigate this concept, our very excited students boarded several busses and made the journey to the Melbourne Zoo. Although it was a little wet, they enjoyed a range of learning experiences whilst they were there.
Students participated in the Wild Explorer experience where they got a close up encounter with a star tortoise and discussed the difference between a tortoise and a turtle. This led to a fantastic conversation about the flippers on a turtle being perfect for swimming and the legs on a tortoise helping it to move on land.
They explored a range of enclosures, including the sea life, where they saw several seals swimming through the water. Students looked at the flippers and tails of the seals and discussed how they were used to glide and move through the water.
In the platypus enclosure, students looked closely at their bill, feet and tail and talked about what the platypus uses these body parts for.
They saw primates and experienced how their strong tails are used to help them move through the trees. Students also took a close look at the giraffes while discussing the importance of their long neck for reaching their food and that their tongue is blue to protect it from the sun while grabbing leaves from trees.
After all these amazing experiences and discussions, students were definitely ready to return to school where they shared their learning from the day and reflected on the new understandings that they had developed during the experiences.
