Fun at the Save Our Seas Shark Centre’s July Holiday Club!
Save Our Seas Holiday Club Programme 2-4 July
Our Save Our Seas Shark Centre’s July Holiday Club has successfully grown in popularity over the last few years! This year we received an enormouse response from the public and were fully booked within days of advertising the programme. Kids will always want to get outdoors and have fun while they learn, and it’s great to see that there are plenty of parents out there who understand this and make the effort to involve their kids in programmes like these. Here’s some of the highlights:
Day 1:
The first morning of our July Holiday Club started off cold and wet – perfect for staying indoors and learning about sharks. As the morning progressed, the sun came out and we were able to explore the rock pools across the road. Everyone was amazed by the abundance and variety of life in these pools. While many children were initially quite wary of the animals they found, their curiosity soon got the better of them and eventually everyone was comfortable with letting anemones try to eat their fingers!
Rock pooling
Day 2:
Save Our Seas Shark Centre Holiday Clubbers had an awesome day out hiking along the False Bay Coast. Armed with a list of marine treasures to find we made our way along the coastal footpath, through rock pools and over beaches with no shortage of enthusiasm. Highlights were the smallest whole shell (next time we’ll take a microscope!) and the slimiest object (some serious competition here!). But, of course, the real highlight was being on our stunning coast on a beautiful, sunny winter’s day with our friends.
Finding anemones!
Day 3:
After a couple of days of exploring the coast, our young Holiday Clubbers were happy to have a bit of inside time, particularly as it was the kind of day that earned the "Cape of Storms" its reputation. So we transformed our garage into a bakery and busily produced a couple of hundred brightly coloured biscuits. In between the different stages of baking, we got cosy and watched some short films, the highlight of which was The Shark Riddle.
Baking fun!
Biomimikids Programme 5-6 July
The Save Our Seas Shark Centre teamed up with Biomimicry SA to host a Biomimikids Programme. Presented by Heidi de Maine, this two day programme for 10 to 15 year-olds introduces learners to the fascinating world of Biomimicry and the notion of imitating and learning from nature.
Day 1: The first day began with some amazing examples of how people have used biomicry in their designs. This was followed by a look around the rock pools to see some of the amazing adaptations evident in many of these animals that survive in this challenging habitat. The day culminated in the young learners making clay models of some seriously funky creatures adapted to imaginary habitats thought up by the children.
Day 2: The Biomimikids delved deeper into this interesting topic mostly through various games. Some of these focussed on adaptations (like birds beaks), while others (like the blindfold activities) forced us to examine how we use our senses. The main task was to design a useful gadget that made use of biomimicry. There were some great designs – a lot of the kids weren’t happy with just a small gadget though, and insisted on thinking big! One even went as far as designing a new, self-sustaining, floating education centre for Save Our Seas. All great ideas start somewhere…
Group work
Group work
This is a great programme that helps the learner develop an important way of thinking. We would like to express a huge thanks to Heidi for their participation, and hope to be able to offer more programmes like these, at the Save Our Seas Shark Centre again soon.