Excursion to The Melbourne Museum

This morning began very early as we prepared to get to school early to catch the bus into Melbourne. Bus loaded, kids accounted for and lunch/snacks stored beneath the bus and we were on our way. We got to the Westgate Bridge and it was like a parking lot. The bus driver diverted off of the Freeway and we went through Yarraville and North Melbourne, past my work and through Lygon Street and up to the Melbourne Museum where we all alighted.

First we had snack time and the kids had a play. Not enough to make them too tired for our day at the Museum though. Get into our groups, I had 5 children to monitor all day. One boy and for girls, one being my Sarah. Fist we went to have a look at the Children's Forrest. It was lovely. Moss grows on what would be naked tree trunks, water flows, a turtle here, a fish there, a frog and some tadpoles over yonder. Just where there is a sign for a lovely Blue Wren..one appears and chirps at us. Some lizards bask in the sun and images of all the above named creatures are placed strategically around the open aired exhibit.

We then went into the Bugs Exhibition. Not for the faint hearted. Many life cycles of all bugs known to man are displayed. Some are able to be played with, books to read, fossils to uncover in a sand pit..some optical illusion mirrors adorn the walls...it was just great! Hands on Science at its very best. The first image you see above is the children inside a plastic bubble..they have bull ants crawling all over the plastic!

Time to look around a bit more before lunch we sat and watched a film about a Whale that washed up at Lorne on the coast a few years back. It illustrated for us the process of stripping the carcass of the whale and then cleaning it up further, using nature, and then placing it as an exhibit at the Museum as we see it today. It was a mammoth task that took 8 years to complete.

Lunch time and the kids ate then ran around playing in the park. It was a nice enough day to do so, a little humid even.

Back inside we went into the special exhibit for school kids. Arachnaphobics be warned! Yikes. The kids loved it there. We got to look though magnifying glasses at insects and non-insects..it was great. The subject of mini beasts is something the kids are concentrating on at school right now. They did very well answering questions of the curator of the museum, which is a great reflection on the teacher as well as parents :)

Coming home the Westgate bridge proves itself to be a car park again. We get back after the school bell has already gone. Not to matter, the school was notified. Some of the littli'es fell asleep on the bus.

A rewarding and tiring day for us all. Phew!