We now have annual membership at Folly Farm once again.

I am now 1.2m tall which means I can do lots of the rides on my own now like the Dodgems, the Chair-o-planes and the Carousel.

Learning Opportunities:

• confidence building
• safety awareness
• controlling the dodgem, steering
• spacial awareness of other people
• hazard perception

The digger driving is now included with the unlimited ride wrist bands, so I had three turns on the diggers. They are real diggers and I learnt to control the digger arm and bucket by pushing and pulling two different levers. First I used the bucket to scoop up aggregate (loose stones) and move it somewhere else. Then I tried using a hook on a chain to lift up different shapes to fit them into the corresponding holes. This was really hard but I did manage to pick up one shape. I will try this again next time we visit and see if I can improve.

Learning Opportunities:

• hand and eye coordination
• perservance

As part of their Christmas celebrations there is a giant walk in snow globe. I went in the snow globe twice, once with Princess Arna and once with Queen Elsi.

We visited some of the animals and now that I am older I am interested in learning facts about the animals. This trip I learnt the following facts:

• piranhas are not actually a big danger to humans, they don’t attack and only bite if they feel threatened.
• tarantulas are not deadly to humans. Yes, they can bite but it’s generally no worse than a bee or wasp sting. Some people can have an allergic reaction to the venom. They do have barbed hairs which can cause itchy rashes, redness, and swelling.
• scorpians have 8 legs the same as spiders. Both animals are arachnids.
• lungfish can live out of water for up to 4 years. When the river dries up it can dig into the mud and make a cocoon around itself. It can then survive for up to four years in a sort of hibernation state. By then hopefully the rains have returned.