Plymouth Aquarium

A week ago I went to Plymouth Aquarium with year 1 including my little man. We did the panto and Pizza Hut too but it's the Aquarium I want to blog about because I love them.

We were greeted by two members of staff and were soon being shown around by Stu who was lovely and energetic. We started the tour looking at starfish which I love but I have to say I distracted Stu somewhat by asking about the Spider Crabs which I was fascinated by. He didn't mind and all the children who were fascinated along with me got a quick education in rather cool looking creatures. We moved on to a starfish chat and a little story before heading over to the Jellyfish, another sea creature I love.

Lots of lovely Starfish!

Close up of the Starfish

Beautiful Spider crab 

The Jellyfish didn't disappoint anyone least of all me. I took to the upside-down Jellyfish because of their beautiful colours. There were slightly larger Jellyfish, some smaller and a tank which must have been full of baby Jellyfish but I forgot to ask. All their colours were amazing.

Upside down Jellyfish

Beautiful, brightly coloured Jellyfish

Next we moved on to the big boys, the sharks. There were some big ol' sharks swimming happily around the plane wreck in their tank with their fish and stingray friends. Enzo the shark was hard to miss given his bizarre shape. Turns out he's a sand shark, one I've never heard about before. It was quite surreal being this far down, trying to imagine how much water was above our heads! Stu gave us a brief chat on the different sharks in this giant tank and a talk about the anatomical structure of some fish.

We viewed another part of the tank, going even further down! Then moved on to the last section of the tour before lunch. The beautiful octopus who stayed still in his corner during a quick talk soon showed his beautiful long tentacles off to us adults the moment the children moved on. Something that looked so bunched up, small and vulnerable suddenly didn't look much that way once his tentacles splayed demonstrating he was easily the length of his tank.

Octopus giving us a show!

We learnt that octopus can stick their tentacles up their noses and can reach around up there fairly easily. There were some other gruesome facts but they made me feel a little sick to be honest! The final stop was to look about the reef where the children spotted their favourites (Nemo! Dory!) It was sad that the turtle had passed away but she lived a much better life with Plymouth Aquarium than she would've done in the wild; something to do with her shell I think but I forget. It was a great tour, I really enjoyed myself and really want to go again with my family so we can look around the whole aquarium and take our time (the one luxury you don't get on a school trip with 5 year olds!)

Little crab walking along his tank

Cupcake Mumma

*Apologies for the photo quality! Understandably you can't use a flash as this upsets the fish..and my isn't what it was *laughs*

Accompanying Year 1 to Trevaskis Farm

Last Friday I put myself forward as a parent helper on the schools trip to a local farm. Despite living here nearly 12 years I have never been to Trevasiks Farm but I can't wait to go back again because it was so much fun. If it was that good for the children when most crops are out of season then I can't wait to see what it's like in the spring and summer.

We started off our trip by having a talk from two farm employees who showed the children a small selection of vegetables. I was really impressed by the children on their veggie knowledge and even when they had to hazard a guess (I did several times: Gourds anyone?) they weren't really silly guesses (some children think potatoes are tomatoes for example) so I was really proud to be a part of the school on this trip!

The classes split up and first up for our group was a guided tour of the farm. We started by keeping the children from going too nuts with the mud and helping those who had fallen victim to a few puddles thanks to their rather deceptive depth! Once that was over we started with the chickens and ducks:

Then we moved on to the poly tunnels holding grapes, strawberries, apples, aubergines,peppers, potatoes and so much more:

Then we explored the apple orchard which got a massive thumbs up from the children:

  

We saw some sheep, pigs and their piglets and a beautiful pony:

Once we returned it was our turn to line up and wash our hands thoroughly before having a tour of the farm shop and fish counter. The farms' fish monger did a great job showing the children a selection of fish and explaining whereabouts they lived in the sea. He also showed off a lot of sharp teeth and funny eyes (the fishes of course) The children couldn't get enough of it and were disappointed that the talk didn't go on to the butchers section!

We left the farm after having a snack, arriving back at school just in time for lunch. I headed in the opposite direction however, to grab a hot chocolate and a biscuit in the comfort of my own home! I had such a fantastic day with year 1 and all the staff and other helpers who were there too. What a great way to end Autumn term!

CupcakeMumma