On Tuesday afternoon our class visited Dobbies Garden Centre near Dalkeith to investigate what goes on…and to buy a special person some new fish!
In our Tuesday Gardening lessons with Mrs Binnie and Mrs Simpson we have been undertaking a wide range of planting and growing activities. We have made bird feeders, bird food and bird boxes. We have done scientific experiments to investigate if we could grow some vegetables without soil. We have gone on lovely nature walks looking for different leaves, trees, cones, nuts and other tree litter. On coming back into school, we have used much of these when making indoor ornaments, decorations or pictures. We have planted bulbs, seeds and tubers. We have cooked with apples from the garden and made our own home made vegetable soup. We have even explored the life and works of Robert Burns – himself from farming stock – in relation to the land and the harvest.
Most recently, however, we have been looking at the function and role of the garden centre. Indeed, we have gone as far as designing our own garden centre – which can be seen on display in Mrs Binnie’s room – and built up a bank of important key words.
This week it was our opportunity to explore the real thing, find out what really went on in somewhere such as Dobbies – and make a very important purchase for a very important person.
We had a good idea before we departed the school of what to expect inside the garden centre. We knew there would be plants, pots, seeds, compost, tools and similar such items. However, we soon discovered to our delight that this particular garden centre had so much more to investigate. The things we did not anticipate finding included :
- livestock including canaries, guinea pigs and rabbits
- summer houses
- hot tubs (!)
- book shop
- fashion clothing (we loved the wellies covered in love hearts!)
- sweets
- ornaments and gifts
The biggest excitement by far was the hot tub outside as it was in full working order and more than tempting for some of our party. We watched as the bubbles made patterns in the water, the steam rose into the cold afternoon air and Miss Carson wondered if she would be caught if she took a dip…
Mrs Hoban had asked us to make sure we found a special item that she was interested in – so that we could come back with the price for her. We looked hard until we came across it and duly obliged her by making note of the prices of the full range of furniture the item belonged to.
We had all been told we could bring a small amount of money (no more than £3) so that we could practise our life and money skills by buying some juice or hot chocolate and a bun in the lovely cafe. We were all shadowed by an older person as we got our trays, chose our food or drink, checked we had enough money, then went to pay for it at the counter. We all remembered to ask for a receipt and – most importantly – we all remembered to say please and thank you!
The final aspect of our trip and a very special one that was close to all our hearts, was buying a new fish for Dr Voge.
People may remember that Fingers the class goldfish went to the big fish bowl in the sky last October. It was a very sad time for the pupils and they took a few weeks getting over their loss. There were certainly a lot of tears and sadness – the pupils had lovingly tended the fish since they started at Preston Lodge and although it had lived a long life (for a goldfish) everyone was sad to see our friend go. At the time the pupils made a biodegradable coffin and buried Fingers close to Dr Voge’s classroom beneath the sunflowers we planted last spring to brighten up the Physics class’ view.
We decided at that time that we would plan a trip to buy a replacement fish for Dr Voge but would leave it a little while – there were imminent school holidays that would make early maintainence issues difficult. Anyway, we hadn’t quite been ready to replace our friend.
So this week the big day finally arrived…
Mrs Binnie took us to the part of the centre where you can buy both outdoor fish and indoor fish. We had a good look at both kinds and realised that we had better make sure we got the right type! There were some lovely “comets” in a tank. They had fine orange scales on their bodies and delightful white fins and tails. We immediately knew which one to get…but then we asked if we could get more than one.
Mrs B and Dr V had been having a chat about this before we went on our visit. Both had quietly decided that it would be nice if there was more than one fish this time so that each had a buddy. So two fish it was – and Dale kindly obliged by selecting the cutest two finned friends that were in the tank. Home they were to come with us.
The only problem we now faced was choosing names for them. Last time out we put names in a hat and drew out a winning title for the fish who was to become “Fingers”. We decided immediately that we would do the same again this time. Each of us were allowed to come up with some names to be put in Amy’s lovely pink woolly hat. They were:
- Shiloh and Sparkle
- Freddie and Bobby
- Troy and Gabriella
- Rainbow and Mandy
- Pinky Pie and Hannah Banana (HB)
The draw was undertaken and the names that came out were Rainbow and HB!
We would like to welcome HB and Rainbow to the class, to be enjoyed by every visitor to Dr Voge’s classroom and to be looked after by us using our well planned feeding and cleaning rota. The ELPs fishkeepers are back in business!
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