Sallins National School

A blog by students…for students!

6th Class Trip to the Bog

on October 13, 2017

Last Friday, the three 6th classes went to the Bog of Allen.  We went to study the habitat. Nuala, Tristan and Aoife brought us around the centre and the bog.

In the morning, we had a snack in the centre before being split into our class groups for the morning activities.

One class went into the museum where we learned about how people used turf more than 50 years ago. They had an old hot water bottle made of clay, a floor brush made of heather sticks and an old iron.

There was an exhibition of the wildlife that or lived on the bog. We learned about a critically endangered bird that lives on the bog called the Curlew. We also saw a fox, a hare and a skull of an ancient elk. We learned that people preserved butter in the bog.

Another class went to the garden to see how bogs were formed. They stared as ponds and lakes. Then the trees and plants died and they formed a fen. Sphagnum moss then grew and the bog was made. The class went to the green house next to see the carnivorous (insect eating) plants. We saw the Sundew, from the bogs of Ireland. We also saw the Pitcher plant from Canada and Venus Fly Trap from the USA.

   

After the green house, we went looking for amphibians. We caught frogs, but we didn’t find any newts.

   

 

The third class went to catch and identify invertebrates that live in the bog. Look at what we found

     

     

 

After each class had tried all of the activities we had lunch.

When we finished lunch, we walked to the Bog of Allen. It was really mucky. We had a great time running through the wet peat. Each class made a “Bog in a Bottle” on the cut bog. We then went to Lodge Bog, a protected bog. It looked very different.

     

     

On Lodge Bog, we got to hold Sphagnum Moss – the bog builder. It was green, brown and purple. It was wet and soft like a sponge. It can hold up to 20 times its own weight in water.

We then “Rocked the Bog” before heading back to school on the bus.

     


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