Tales & Teeth

31 Jan Tales & Teeth

As part of our Tales and Teeth topic Elmer Class have been learning about animals and their teeth.  On Tuesday we were lucky enough to have a visit from Edward’s dad, Chris who is a vet.  He talked to us all about what it is like to be a vet and explained all about carnivores, herbivores and omnivores.  The children loved hearing about the stories of how he helped animals get better and were amazed at how Chris removed a tooth from a tiger at Longleat.  We got to see some animal skulls and even touched the tooth from the tiger he helped!

The excitement did not stop there for Elmer Class and on Friday morning they had a visit from Jack’s Dad, Josh Ponte. He told them all about his work in Gabon, working in conservation to preserve the magnificent rainforest. He started by using Google Earth to show us our school and then he zoomed out around the world and took us to Gabon and the Congo rainforest where he works. He showed us photos of Humpback Whales, Nile Crocodiles, Leatherback Turtles and Sun-tailed Monkeys. We learnt about the Forest Elephants and how they are the gardeners of the forest, clearing space and dispersing seeds in their poo! Elmers have been learning in class to classify animals into herbivores, omnivores and carnivores but Josh taught them that elephants are frugivores and only eat fruit. He told us about Mandrills, that are only found in Gabon and talked of his adventures when he lived with gorillas. We compared human skeletons to those of chimpanzees, gorillas, Bonobo monkeys and orangutans (which means ‘old man of the forest’). This linked well with this term’s value of ‘Hope’ as Josh explained that Gabon is one of the few areas of the world that holds a solution to the future in terms of protecting rainforest. He and his team have been to COP 26 to share their positive work. Ollie, Josephine, Theo H. and Edward demonstrated some great scientific and geographical knowledge when answering questions. Well done everyone!