Tortoise Day 2007
October 3rd saw Milking Bank Primary School host its second annual Tortoise Day.
The day was eagerly anticipated by staff and children alike, and this year the whole of the school - all three hundred and eighty-five pupils in Reception to Year six, and all sixty nursery children were involved.
Once again West Midland Safari Park and British Chelonia Group came along and supported us on the day. Special thanks must go to Adam and Sarah from the Safari Park, and to George, Pauline and John from the West Midlands Branch of British Chelonia Group.
Adam and Sarah ran two different sessions in the hall. Nursery and Reception children had the chance to meet tortoises and touch them. The children in Reception learnt a little bit about how to look after tortoises.
Years one and two learnt about the needs of a captive tortoise and looked at what should be in a tortoise's enclosure or vivarium. Children then helped to put together an enclosure which was then used to house a Russian tortoise.
Years three to six learnt about the five things that tortoises need to live: a UV light, a heat source, food, water and somewhere to shelter. The children then made a 3D paper tortoise which they could take home. On each of the five scutes the children wrote the things that they had learnt that tortoises need.
The British Chelonia Group spoke to children in years three to five about general tortoise husbandry. Amongst other things, George demonstrated his own home-made tortoise measuring device, which he uses to calculate shell:weight ratio on his Mediterranean tortoises, and Pauline spoke to children about her tortoise, Fred's, daily routine.
In addition, some children had the chance to watch part of the BBC Galapagos programme as well as additional home-taken video supplied kindly by Lynne Garner.
The day was thoroughly enjoyable and raised £385 which has been put towards sponsoring one Galapagos tortoise egg for each class in the school. The visitors and activities on the day have acted as an impetus to further work on the Galapagos islands and tortoises throughout the school.
Once again Tortoise Day was extremely successful, and was covered by three local newspapers - The Dudley Chronicle, The Dudley News and The Express and Star.
Galapagos Conservation Trust would like to thank everyone involved in the launch.
For further information about Tortoise Club for Schools, e-mail tortoise@gct.org.
We are looking for a venue for next year's launch. Would you like your school to play host? If so, e-mail us!
Press coverage of Tortoise Day 2007
- Click here to read about last year's re-launch
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