A great educational day out in Norfolk. Welney Wetland Centre
Yesterday we flew by the Welney Wetland Centre in Norfolk. We were just killing time really, waiting for our great British roast dinner at my best friend’s house on a freezing January afternoon.
We were so impressed with what we found at the Eco-friendly Welney Centre that it deserves a big plug.
Welney had possibly the best kids education centre and museum I’ve ever seen. Another bonus, it was Free!
I write about great homeschool field trips all the time over on my other site, Homeschool Group Hug. I’ve seen a fair few, this one was really impressive.
We didn’t pay the admission for the hides and to see the swan feeding, we were too tight short of time! But what we found in the Fenland Worlds Discovery Centre and schools activity room was plenty to keep us happy for a couple of hours.
The boys got busy making winter bird feeders from pine cones crammed full of a gloopy mixture of lard, seeds and cranberries. The centre was running an educational promotion on cranberries when we visited. Did you know that cranberries used to be grown on wetlands in the UK? Did you also know that cranberries are named for their colour similarity to cranes’ heads? We followed the cranberry discovery trail in the gardens chasing round finding each new cranberry or crane fact.
The kids could happily make and create in the schools centre. We tried drawing and colouring ducks, cutting and gluing a swan head hat and folding an origami swan.
D (9) was fascinated by the microscope set up. He was busy zooming in on tiny bones from owl pellets. I was busy explaining the different bones, teeth and joints he was seeing. For once, a microscope display that actually worked and worked well!
In the Fenland Life Discovery Centre, a small museum, we discovered what otter poo smells like, how to catch eels the traditional way and how the great flood of 1947 came about, just for starters. It was a fascinating little collection of objects, movies and pictures, really well done.
I learnt a lot and the kids had plenty of fun. So well done Welney and the Wildlife and Wetlands trust, you did a fantastic job.
There are other WWT wetland centres around the country, we’ll see if we can fit a few more in.
