Zoolab visits Home Farm

Animals have been something of a theme in Home Farm this term with Year 2 studying the rainforest, Reception visiting Marwell Zoo and the Early Years are always discovering some wonderful creature as they explore the grounds. 

Zoolab’s visit created a great deal of excitement as we waited to see which rainforest animals were going to emerge out of the big bag that Lucy, the Zoolab Ranger brought with her.  We were not disappointed as we were introduced to the various creatures.  

Firstly we met George, the giant African land snail.  A new fact for all of us was that he had 10,000 teeth on his tongue and two noses!  Charlie the Madagascan hissing cockroach was next.  Although some might think that cockroaches are among the least appealing of insects, they are in fact incredible animals.  They have two brains, one in their head and one in their tummy that allows them to live for 10 days without their head.  They are also true omnivores, the only things that they cannot eat are plastic, metal and glass.  Milly the giant millipede is still a baby and has only 200 legs.  When she is fully grown she will be the proud possessor of 310 legs!  The tree frog, Neville, had to stay in his cage as he is rather naughty and likes to leap around.  A corn snake called Pudding was a firm favourite with the children.  She has beautifully patterned skin that provides the perfect camouflage for her environment.  Finally we met Hugo the rat, who provided a fluffy, cuddly end to the session.

The Early Years children saw the same animals but as part of a story telling session based on the book ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’.  They all joined in the refrain ‘We’re going on an animal hunt, we’re going to see a few of them, we’re not scared, we’ve got our friends here’.  They certainly were not scared and most of the children were very happy to handle all of the creatures.  It was a most enjoyable morning and gave us the opportunity to meet animals that we do not normally come across in this country.

KM