Myths, Legends and Evolution

Ferdy is doing the senses at school this week. We played a senses game last week but he had requested an animals day this Friday so we thought we'd go to the zoo and look specifically at animals that are strong in each of the senses. He's also been looking at the creation story at school, listening to and reading Greek myths at home and (I'm not sure we've mentioned this), ingesting everything Star Wars and therefore seems to think that the world was made by a combination of God, Zeus and Yoda. To balance this out I thought we should add a bit of evolution to the mix.

We had been to our local library to look for books on evolution but disappointingly there were none so I managed to get a few second hand. We read The Story of Life on Earth and watched some videos, David Attenborough's one was the best; enough good visuals to keep a 5 year old interested, and clear and concise. Despite Ferdy being able to listen to stories for hours on end, and watch the whole of Star Wars I and IV, he has quite a short attention span for anything that he realises is to do with learning. The BBC also do some good short videos on evolution, and Darwin's theory on natural selection ties in rather nicely with thinking about animals and senses.

Ferdy then wrote 'I am going to the big zoo' in his Friday book. I had suggested he include an adjective in his writing this week and he was going to write interesting until he realised how long it was.

Our day at the zoo was a good example of how sometimes too much planning and doing too much doesn't really work for us.







I had made a worksheet but it was a rainy day and we couldn't find most of the animals on it! We also realised that it was far more interesting to spend time with a few animals, rather than trying to cover too much.

L-R: Penguins waiting for their fish; eating lunch; Ferdy demonstrates an Agile
gibbon; learning what Siamang gibbons eat and where they're from

We spent ages watching the Siamang gibbons (Ferdy was pleased that they are in the zoo when he realised that they are from Indonesia and could be eaten by Komodo Dragons - 'I know this from Go Jetters'), and with the Bonobos (perhaps my sons are familiar with a matriarchy...). Ferdy and Gil then chose to eat their lunch in the chimp enclosure and ignore the chimps.

We found the owls (an example of good hearing on our worksheet), and the snow leopard enclosure (good eyesight) but no bush dogs (smell), snakes (taste) or ferrets (touch). Despite the fact that it was raining and 10 degrees outside, when Ferdy suggested we have an ice cream to test their sense of taste, and pretend they were Siamang gibbons in the soft play, how could I not agree?

Ferdy even suggested completing the worksheet (I had given up on it) before he discussed with the soft play manager how much it would cost for them both to get in.

p2 of our worksheet

When we got home, Ferdy decided to paint Medusa (one of the myths we are listening to in the car), which seemed a rather apt end to an animals day with a bit of mythology, senses and evolution thrown in.

'Medusa's head after it has been cut off'