Classes for National Schools at Tralee Bay Wetlands Centre

This 3 hour visit to the Wetlands Centre touches on all aspects of wetland biodiversity, and gives children an exciting and hands-on way to explore our wetland and all of its inhabitants. Activities may vary depending on season, but include mini-beast hunting, pond-dipping, frog hunting, bird watching, small mammal trapping and a fun exploration of our nature museum.

Experience the wetland indoors! This outreach visit to your school includes many of the activities from the visit to the centre, and some new ones. Our museum travels with us, and so do the wetland ponds and small mammals! Added to the mix is a fun game touching on endangered species around the world and the sounds that they make.

Leave no Trace is a programme designed to help us value the natural environment, to understand the impact of our activities and to enable us to make decisions to minimise that impact while still enjoying outdoor activities with freedom. It is based around 7 principles, which this session will explore in a fun, interactive and hands-on way.

For further information on the Leave no Trace programme, visit http://www.leavenotraceschools.org/

Discover a whole world of tiny animals right under your nose on land and in water. Learn about how to safely catch minibeasts with nets, trays and pooters, how to identify all the different creatures and all about the relationships these creatures have with each other and with us in a fun, hands-on and interactive way. If you take this class in your classroom, we will bring trays and pond samples with us, but if the school has access to a pond, woodland or grass area that is ideal!

National Tree Day is coming up next month, on October 6th, so why not mark the occasion with a class themed around our marvellous trees and their importance to us and our planet. Learn about all the parts of a tree, why they grow so tall, and how to recognise our native trees, even without their leaves. Learn about how trees make the planet better and provide homes for millions of creatures. Every student will get the chance to plant a seed to grow a tree of their very own, and the class will plant a tree at the wetlands centre or at your school if we have come to you.

Learn about different birds in your area and how they are adapted to their lifestyle. Learn about our native birds, about which birds migrate, where they go to, and why they come to visit Ireland. Learn about birdsong, why birds sing, and how you can use sound as well as sight to identify the different birds around your school. This class is ideal for a trip to the wetlands, but works equally well in your classroom, especially if you have woods or hedgerows nearby.

Ideal for schools going for their Water Green Flag, this session focusses on where our water comes from, the water cycle, and how the conservation of water is becoming more and more important with climate change and the increasing human population. We will discuss the different ways we use water, how we waste it and how we might save it, as well as how something as familiar as the bog behind your school is vital for protecting our water for the future. A trip to the centre will also involve a hands-on visit to the wetland here, but this session is equally suitable for a classroom visit, especially if you have a bit of bogland nearby!

This session is particularly suited for schools going for their Litter and Waste Green Flag – we will explore the impacts of human waste on the Irish landscape and particularly our coastline, and the devastating effect our wastefulness has on the wildlife that shares the landscape with us. Learn about ways to prevent plastic waste in particular ending up in the environment, what happens to it when it does and what alternatives we have to its use. This class is equally suitable as a visit to the wetlands or in your class-room.