Our intrepid Year 5 children recently visited the Isle of Wight, as part of their geography course. The plan was to have two main activities: to visit a fossil museum and search for fossils on the beach with a geologist, and then to have a short boat trip around The Needles.
However, things did not go to plan! The Needles boat man called to cancel just after we left Westbourne House to get the ferry to the Isle of Wight. Mr Sutcliffe and Mr James quickly researched other educational activities that could be conducted on the Isle of Wight, and came up with Carisbrooke Castle. This was a great success, as can be seen from the photographs, and will fit in well with the children's future history topics.
After their visit to Carisbrooke Castle, the children headed down to The Dimbola Museum on the south coast, where a geologist showed the children some of the fossils that had been found on the island. These fossils included the bones of a new dinosaur (a flying pterosaur) that had been found by a nine year old girl called Daisy Morris and named after her: Vectidraco Daisymorrisae.
The children then went to the beach to search the 130 million year old (Cretaceous) rock beds for dinosaur and other fossils. Dinosaur footprints, fossilised wood, pyrite (fools gold), sponges, echinoids (sea urchins) and one small dinosaur bone were found.
The children enjoyed an action-packed day on the Isle of Wight and returned with heavy rock-laden rucksacks.
Read more about our exciting geography curriculum.
