text: School visits - SANParks.org Forums
  Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 1:20 pm
  Location: Give yourself plenty of time to play
  Unread post by Piglet » Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:52 pm
  On Thursday 6th July we went to do a display at Cedarwood primary School.
  I just wanted to share with the forum folk some of the responses we got from the children:
  Grade 2 (age 6/7 yrs)
  "I liked feeling the shark skin"
  "I liked touching the springbok skin, it was so soft"
  "I was sad when I saw the traps"
  "I liked the buffalo head, I couldn't pick it up it was too heavy"
  "I liked the skins, skeletons, sea corals and seaweed"
  "I learned that horns are made of hair, and liked the traps, I found them very interesting"
  And then from the older children – Grade 4:
  "I did not like the part when I saw the dead animals"
  "I liked the part when I saw the big 5 and the little 5"
  "I like the Rhino skull, it's so big!!"
  "I learned that people are so cruel to animals"
  "I was horrified when I saw the animals in the snares"
  "I enjoyed the elephant tusks"
  We go around to schools and shopping centres, doing displays and trying to raise awareness/funds and a love for our national parks. We have been invited to return to every school and centre we have been to in the last 2 years.
  Enjoying every experiance to the fullest.........
  Joined: Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:01 pm
  Unread post by Bodger » Tue Aug 08, 2006 3:50 pm
  I find it commendable that you make time to travel to the schools (at your own expense I understand) and give the younger generation their first exposure into the world of conservation. You may not see immediate results, but I am sure you are helping lay a foundation for young conservators in the future. Some of their innocent comments are priceless.
  BUT - please tell me that the dead things you are into reflect a passion for collecting animal skins and bones, because I would hate to think that my children are receiving instructions from someone with more morbid tastes!
  Surely you can put it a little more tastefully!
  Unread post by Piglet » Tue Aug 08, 2006 6:23 pm
  I do see your point of view. All that I can say in my defense is that I have been doing this for a while and get very "into" my subject. However, your reservations are noted.
  I will say this, if your children were at one of the schools we have done, they would come home telling you it's time to go to the bush again, so they can enjoy the "stuff" they spent all day learning.
  Unread post by DinkyBird » Fri Aug 11, 2006 7:23 pm
  Gosh piglet it sounds like you are doing a great job spreading the 'word'! It must be rewarding?
  Unread post by binkybozo » Sun Aug 13, 2006 12:18 pm
  my s/o is a teacher at a primary school in leondale (gauteng) and they are studying mammals at the moment. my s/o took our pictures of our recent trip to kruger with to show her grade 3's and the kids went nuts over them. that night we were saying wouldn't it be cool if we could possibly get a ranger to come and talk to the kids in her class and teach them about wildlife conservation and now i find this thread on the forum. could you guys point me into the right direction to get some info into having one of the hon. rangers come to her school. after their response to our photos i think the kids would love it to bits. also any way that we can drill conservation into kids heads is great, remember they will be running kruger one day so i say start them out young on conservation education
  end note. one child in my s/o's class was so excited about the animals that my s/o showed them that he made his mother take him to the joburg zoo the next day. it just goes to show you that they are intrested, shame , i so wish i had the money to take them all to kruger and let them experience what my s/o and i do every time we go.
  Unread post by Piglet » Sun Aug 13, 2006 4:03 pm
  Hi Binkbozo,
  There are two HR's in the gauteng region that go to schools to do exactly what you're looking for - if you like to contact me my e-mail address is: dinky@mweb.co.za we would love to hear from you and other interested parties, you are correct, we need to get this message out to as many young people as possible. don't know if you have visited the HR gallary website, all the photo's from the schools we have been to are there. Hope to hear from you soon.
  Unread post by Imberbe » Sun Aug 13, 2006 4:04 pm
  I will pm you the contact details of the head or the HR's display team. They will be just too glad to come to the school.
  Unread post by Piglet » Sun Aug 13, 2006 4:09 pm
  thanx for your support dinkybird yes it is most rewarding. I do keep a book on the funny things and comments the children make to us at the schools, we love it. every school is different with it's own pros and cons. It's great!!
  Unread post by arks » Sun Aug 13, 2006 6:43 pm
  piglet wrote: worlds greatest collector of dead stuff!!
  I'm so glad you put the "dead stuff" back in your sig, piglet. I also like to collect things and especially like skulls and bones — have what I think is fossilised meerkat skull and a few bones that I found many years ago by chance in the sand at St Helena Bay, and what I think is a turtle skull, found on the shore at Tortola. But usually when I see skulls and bones, they are in places where I'm not allowed to "collect" them.
  I saw it in the Parfuri area, on Nyala Drive, in April.
  Unread post by binkybozo » Sun Aug 13, 2006 8:16 pm
  thank you so much for the fast replies! my s/o will talk to the other grade 3 teachers on monday to see if they are intrested in doing it as a group thing at school. i do have another question though...how much is this going to cost to do?
  Unread post by Imberbe » Sun Aug 13, 2006 10:56 pm
  Cost = Zip, zero, nothing, niks!
  Unread post by binkybozo » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:33 am
  again thanks for the fast replies!
  Unread post by Piglet » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:54 am
  if you would like to see what it is we do - Go to Honorary Rangers on the left (in the green) click on that then go to photo gallery, you will see all the schools and shopping centres we have done. We normally only do only grades 4-7, however we are at the school for the whole day and everyone gets a chance to see, feel and taste (if they wish) - from the littlies to the teachers!!
  Unread post by Piglet » Mon Aug 14, 2006 3:35 pm
  Hey arks, good to hear i'm not the only collector I have just found this calling so i'm a newy at this and not able to id the bones from the photo's you posted for me to look at. however i would say it looks like a small something but it's not a "full top" skull in the pic either. what do you think it is? what do you do with your collection?
  Unread post by arks » Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:18 pm
  Thanks, piglet! I don't have a clue what it is, except that it's smallish ... will post the pix in the animals forum.
  As for my "collection", which is just those couple of skulls, really, they are on a table in my living room, together with lots of seashells from beachs round the world, beach glass, chunks of fossilised coral — I suppose seashells and fossilised coral are also "dead things"
  I think your school/mall visit programs with cool stuff for kids to touch — all children seem to prefer to see with their hands — sounds really great. It's so important to instill curiosity and interest in wild things at a young age. My friends kids (when they were younger, all teenagers or older now) loved all the stuff I've collected and were forever "seeing with their hands", but fortunately not too much got damaged ... sea urchins and sand dollars suffered the worst as they're so very fragile. Really great that you're providing kids such a "hands-on" experience