On Thursday April 14th, Mr. Foley’s class made their much awaited trip to Dublin Zoo, a designated DPSM Discover centre, as part of the school’s application for this year’s award.
Adam, Luke, Patrick, Nathan K, Nathan O’B, Arturas, Jordan and Johnny all made the trip and for many, it was their first time to the zoo. It was a day they will never forget, and was the perfect mix of learning and fun.
We were very lucky that all the animals seemed to be very energetic and the crowds were not too big as we spent almost 3 hours walking around and learning about each of the animals.
Johnny’s favourite animal was the African Hunting Dog. We had to ask one of the zookeepers where we could find the dogs. They were in the African Plains section of the zoo. We saw a big bone that the dogs had been chewing on.
Nathan O’B loved the birds, and was able to show Mr. Foley how to call the birds. He also explained to Mr. Foley how they sometimes use their mouths to hang from branches. There were definitely one or two Nathan would have liked to have brought back to his aviary in his back garden!
The most memorable part of our trip was definitely when we went to learn about the tiger. After we read about what they eat and where they can be found, we decided to take a picture with the tiger in the background. The tiger ran at us and the boys ran away just as quick! Nathan O’B was the only one not to run. He said that you should never let an animal know that you are afraid of them. The tiger then “marked his territory” in front of us which everyone found very funny!
We enjoyed the farm at the zoo too, with some of the boys even getting in some practice at milking a cow. We also had good fun putting our hands into the unknown and having to guess what we were feeling in the visitor’s centre. We got to watch a short film in their Elephant cinema on their Samsung tv.
The Reptile House was brilliant. We saw bats, crocodiles, turtles and snakes. There was also an artist there sketching the animals. Her drawing was amazing and very life-like.
After talking about our trip, we have agreed that our next trip will continue our learning about animals and nature. We are going to go to Sea Life in May and learn about what they have in their aquarium. One of the fish we really want to see is the Red Bellied Piranha.
It was a very long day but it was definitely worth it. A big thank you to Dublin Zoo being so welcoming and to all the parents for being so understanding when we were late home!
