On Tuesday, Year 3 went on a trip to Tropical World as part of our Geography work on rainforests. We had a fantastic day and learned lots of wonderful things. We spent half of the day in an education centre where we found out about the layers of the rainforest and the animals living within each part. We also did a comparative study between a native, local woodland and the tropical rainforest and then we looked at the impact humans are having on the rainforests and some of the steps that we can take to help slow this down. 
Another very exciting part of the trip was having a look at some of the animals and creatures that live in tropical rainforests. We were very surprised to see a real crocodile and looked around the butterfly enclosure very carefully to see if we could spot any of the Blue Morpho butterflies that are found in the emergent layer of the rainforest. 

Here’s what some of the children thought of the day:

“I didn’t know that meercats could climb until I saw them.” Lucy A

“I learnt that poison dart frogs get poison from what they eat.” Beatrix

“I was surprised that the alligator moved and I was petrified that it was real.” Jamie

“I enjoyed watching butterflies and spending time with my class.” Dylan

“I really liked it because we were in groups and I saw an alligator and a tree boa snake.” Harrison A

“I liked seeing the Emerald tree boa because of it’s colour!” Isabella

Here is some of the recounts that were written by children after the visit.

Elsy:

On Tuesday we went to Tropical World for a school trip. It was approximately 30 minutes to get there, we went to education centre first. The people there were called Debbie, Julia and Christe. They gave us a guide about the rainforest. We did an activity about the layers of the rainforest which are emergent, canopy, understory and the forest floor. At one point I had to dress up in a chameleon costume in front of everybody!

After lunch we put coloured vests on and went to look at the animals in Tropical world. There were Aligators, tortoises, sting rays, snakes, meercats and many more. On some of the sighns they said about deforestation habitats and what you can do to help the rainforest such as reduce, reuse, recycle and they are the three r’s. My favourite animals were the snakes. After we finished looking at the animals we went to the gift shop and I bought 6 magnetic nuggets. 

Louis:

On Tuesday 1^st February 2022 Year 3 went on a coach to Tropical World. Oliver was my partner and he sat next to the window. When we got there we went to the wrong place. We went to Tropical World instead of the Education Centre! When we got to the education centre, we looked at how much a rainforest’s rain was compared to rain in the UK. The rain in the rainforest was 250cm and UK’s rain was only 65cm! Then we compared a woodland and a rainforest. 

After lunch, we went Tropical World. We saw: meercats, turtles, a stingray, butterflys, a crocodile, tarantulas, sun beetles and snakes. My favourite part was seeing the turtle’s piggyback.