The K1 children from Peace, Joy and Faith classes kicked off term 2 with an interesting theme, “Birds and Insects”. The objective of this theme is to create awareness and understanding of various birds and insects in our environment. In order to make learning fun and interesting, children visited the Butterfly Park at Sentosa on the 3rd and 4th of April. We were blessed with a beautiful day and arrived punctually in the morning and feeling excited about the trip. At the Butterfly Park, the children and teachers were welcomed by the “super” warm guides. There were three segments to the tour – interactive time with creepy crawlies, walk through the butterfly aviary and feeding the birds at the bird and animal aviary. Each segment was well planned and our children were actively engaged. The guide walked us through a man-made tunnel with creepy crawlies displayed in glass containers. Upon arriving at the insect kingdom museum, we were greeted with stick insects, three-horned beetle, millipedes, spiders and scorpions. During the sharing, the children were allowed to touch and feel the millipede, stick insects and three-horned rhino beetle. Many of our children came forward to touch the insects. The guide gently put the stick insect on the children’s palms and advised them not to pinch the insect. The children learnt that the female stick insects have wings but are not able to fly because of their big abdomen. The male stick insects are smaller in size and are able to fly. The guide also showed us the three-horned rhino beetle and invited the children to count the number of horns on the beetle. They learnt that the three-horned rhino beetle is the strongest insect in the world and is able to carry an object 1000 times its weight. Whilst observing the millipedes, they learnt that they belong to the arachnid family just like the spiders and scorpions. Our children actively participated by asking several questions during this sharing.
In the next segment, we walked out to the butterfly aviary where our children were invited by colourful and fluttering butterflies. At the garden, the guide shared many interesting facts about the butterflies. They allowed the children to touch the delicate pupa, chrysalis and butterflies. Our young ones even learnt about the metamorphosis of a butterfly as they observed the eggs, caterpillar, chrysalis and young butterflies. To make learning more fun for the kids, the guides arranged egg hunting for the children. Children had to look for eggs in the lime plant but it was a challenging task for them.
The guide brought us to the bird aviary. There were many active and colourful parrots. The parrots flew around us and landed on our shoulders. Children were fascinated by the colour and close encounter with the parrots. Our children fed the parrots with seeds and observed how the parrots cracked the shell and ate the seed. They even watched the iguana feeding onto the green vegetables.
This trip has enhanced our children’s knowledge about the delicate butterflies, insects and birds as they come closer to nature. Such hands-on approach will definitely help our children to absorb information better through fun learning process.