On Thursday Year 1 set off on our class trip to an almost unheard of treasure in the depths of Devon; Axe Valley Wildlife Park
After a very long coach trip, we arrived and were welcomed by their fantastic Education Officer, Marie, who briskly settled us in and directed us to the first of many fun activities.
The excited ‘Scuttling Spiders’ group were led by Marie to their outdoor ‘Talk Tent’ for a chance to get up close and personal with some of the park’s creatures. First we were introduced to ‘Elizabeth’ the Royal Python. We were all feeling slightly less excited at our first impression, however we soon learned that Elizabeth was rather lovely, and not at all cold or slimy! In fact she was extremely soft and smooth, and we all said goodbye to her feeling rather proud of ourselves, and a little less nervous of snakes! Next we met Merry and Tipsy, a friendly ferret couple, who actually spend half the day at the park and the other half at Marie’s home! The ferrets were full of trick and they showed us their favourite game of hide and seek inside Marie’s coat! They even showed us how they would kiss and cuddle Marie when she asked them to! After that, we met a rather terrifying tarantula! Marie noticed that our faces were not so full of joy anymore and decided that the only way to prove how easy and safe it was to hold it, would be to volunteer the teachers (who were probably the most scared out of everyone!) After seeing the teachers holding the giant creature, all the children decided to prove they were even braver and all of them let it walk over their hands. The last creature we met was Archie the Armadillo! He was feeling a little shy at first, and so he balled himself up inside his armour, but as soon as we shouted ‘come out Archie’ he was dashing around our feet showing off his speedy running and digging skills!
Meanwhile the ‘Slithering Snakes’ group were on a quiz tour of the park. We saw so many amazing animals including: tortoises, bearded dragons, swans, ducks, flamingos, peacocks, otters, meerkats, parrots, owls, eagles, caracara, goats, wallabies, Patagonian mara, deer, rhea, emus, servals, porcupines, lemurs, squirrel, sheep, kookaburras, pheasants, wildcats, storks, turkeys, ibis, guinea pigs, kune kune pigs, racoons, alpaca and zebras… to name just a few! It was incredible! We learned so many new names and interesting facts, we could hardly believe it!
After the chance to swap over, we had a lovely picnic lunch and then we were off to feed the wallabies. Did you know… when wallabies are born they are the size of a baked bean! They spend the first year of their life in their mum’s pouch as they continue to grow. These wallabies were not feeling very hungry so after throwing in our willow branches we decided to feed the goats instead, and they were definitely hungry!
Unfortunately, it was soon time to set off on our return journey to school, and we all found the excitement of the day (and a busy Phonics Screening Week!) caught up on us and it was a decidedly quieter drive…zzz…