Our School Trip to Brigit's Garden: By Kate Kennedy
On Tuesday, Junior Infants to 3rd Class went on a wonderful school trip to Brigit’s Garden. When we arrived at the garden, we were led into a room called “The Hazel Room”. There we left our bags and made name tags. When we were finished, we made our way to the lake where we were doing fishing. The team I was in, caught a newt, a great diving beetle, caddis fly larva and a pond skater.
We had an identifying sheet and found out what they all were. Once muck got into our basin!. The water was unclear so we had to get new water!. We had magnifying glasses so we could see our catch more clearly. Soon we went in for lunch. We ate and moved on to our next activity with Dolores. We went out into the woodland. We were told to be very quiet. Dolores said to put your two fists in the air, close your eyes and stick up a finger every time you heard a sound. After that, we saw Dolores take out a bag. The bag had three birds inside, each making a realistic sound similar to a bird it was supposed to be. The Robin, the Chaffinch and the Greattit.
We had a test to see could we remember all the bird sounds and we did. Next thing was to find pretty flowers with a view finder and pretend to take pictures. We found primroses, dandelions, wood anemones, violets, daisies, cowslips and lesser celandine. Afterwards, we went to the other side of the woods to build a home for woodmice. There were three main things the next had to have. 1. It had to be safe. 2. It had to be comfy. 3. It had to have nuts and berries inside. Split into teams again, we were put to work. We gathered moss and twigs to build our homes. When Dolores was doing the judging, she called ours “the snack” and she said that a mouse could survive for six days on two of them!
Next we went to the herb patch to make what Dolores called “Smelly Potions”. We had to get herbs and rub them between our fingers and put them in our mixture. The name of our portion was “The Indian Mix”. Then we made wishes, we picked a piece of paper and made a nature wish for the summer. We all kept it a secret (what we wrote). Then we played a lovely rhythm on some instruments. Dolores said that it made a perfect rhythm. The queen of summer would appear.
Almost immediately, Jenny appeared with Celtic robes and a crown of ivy on her head. We made our way over to a black throne making as much noise as possible to make sure the wishes came true.
I really enjoyed Brigit’s Garden. I hope our wishes come true.