On Friday the 12th May, the Juniors and Seniors all set off on their school tour. All week they had been counting down the ‘sleeps‘ and were bursting with excitement. We went to Stonehall Visitor Farm in Curragh Chase where we were greeted by our lovely guide Sinéad who made sure we all had our ‘bunny ears‘ on. We listened to facts about all the animals.
Some interesting facts we learned:
- The male bird is always the most colourful. Males have beautiful feathers so they can show off to the female birds.
- A group of owls is called a Parliament.
- Female emus make a drumming sound with their throats to call the male emus.
- A baby squirrel is called a kitten.
We saw a huge variety of animals including red deer, peacocks, peahens, emus, llamas and wallabys, among many others. We even heard a parrot say ‘Hello’ to us! We saw some smaller animals indoors like lovebirds and chipmunks. The chipmunks were very fast! Some of us let one climb along our arms. He even went for a rest on the top of some of our heads!
After we had taken a long walk around the farm to see all the animals we went indoors to have our lunch. Then we had some time in the indoor play area where there was a bouncy castle, go carts, a play house, a slide and lots more to keep us entertained. The teachers even had a turn on the go carts but they weren’t quite as fast as the children!
It was a great day. The children were in top form and enjoyed every minute of the trip. Of course, getting to go on John’s bus was the highlight of it all!