4th Class: Phoenix Park Trip. Do You Think We’ll Get Homework For This?
On Wednesday 22nd of April, Paula, Peadar and Fourth Class to the Phoenix Park. Peadar had organized a treasure hunt. The prize was a homework-pass. As the children walked, they wrote down answers to the puzzles with their partners. When they reached the Ashtown Castle Visitor Centre, they watched some slideshows and videos of deer.
Looking for clues
- 4th Class show the eventual diameter of this tree
The Duke of Ormond: Laid out the park for hunting in 1662 Pondering Clues at Ashtown Castle
Did you know that the Phoenix Park was built by James Butler; and that the Park has been around since man lived along side the Liffey; or that the park has about 200 baby fawns born per year? And there are 5000 in the herd? If you’re walking your dog in the park, make sure it’s on a lead because sometimes dogs have been known to attack or even kill the newborn fawns! The babies are sooo cute! When fawns are found in the Park they get tags in their ears . Every year the tags change colour so they know what age the fawns are. The fawns make a little squeaky noise when the tag goes in .So sweet!!! The kids also watched the Phoenix Park video.
An early resident of the park
The Californian Redwood bark is fire-proof. It can live for 40,000 years
Then they learned about trees and did some bark rubbings. They went straight back to the treasure hunt. It was organized like this. There were questions about the park . There were spaces to write the words with circles around some of the spaces. You had to write in the answers and write in the circled letters on the back. All the circled letters spelled out four words. It was really hard, but great fun. After working on the puzzle for a while we went to the playground. It was so hot. Some people were on the verge of knowing, so others just had to act fast! Remember the prize: Fourth Class would do just about anything for a night free of homework! We went to the President’s house. There was just one more question and every one was excited. “Right.” Peadar said. “You have 30 seconds to come up with the answer.” We all panicked. Some were pacing up and down, others writing furiously. Then Peadar called out all the answers to the questions. “So the words are …”, said Peadar “Barack Obama”. Kayla said “And Hilary Clinton”, said Caoilainn. So, to cut a long story short, we didn’t win (Your fabulous reporters), but we all had a great time.
Hugging a Redwood Tree in the park
