Year 3 Trip to The Beaney Museum

A lovely day was had by all, when Year 3 pupils went to The Beaney Museum to find out more about the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings and learn about animal adaptations.

It was a beautiful day for our trip and the children were excited about catching the bus from Ash village. Travelling by public bus certainly seems to be a popular way of travel for our younger pupils, particularly when the bus is a double decker! Naturally, we all went up on the top deck and lots of excited chatter was heard on the way to Canterbury. After carefully navigating the busy pedestrianised streets of this beautiful city, the children were keen to find out exactly how they would be spending their time at The Beaney.

The day was busy, with lots to keep our enthusiastic pupils occupied. There was a fun cutting and sticking art activity where the pupils in each class collaborated together to collage a long mural of plants and animals and their habits. A variety of colourful materials were used and the finished pieces were gorgeous.

An interesting talk was given about one particular exhibit, a stuffed rook wearing a red coat, and then the children got to look more closely at and make observations of some other very special exhibits that the museum staff brought out specially for our visit. The children learnt about animal adaptations and got to see some rather unusual creatures, which included a parrot fish, a blowfish and a leatherback turtle.

During the course of the morning, everyone got the chance to visit a special Quentin Blake exhibit and they were delighted to see how he brought some of Roald Dahl’s most iconic characters to life using his widely recognised drawing style. The BFG was a firm favourite!

In the afternoon, the children were lucky enough to be able to put their archaeologist hats on and actually handle some Anglo-Saxon and Viking artefacts. The children developed their historical enquiry skills by trying to figure out the name of each artefact and identify its purpose. There were lots of very interesting ideas and much discussion and, at the end of the session, there was even some surprise when information about each artefact was finally revealed.

Before we left the Beaney, there was of course a much anticipated visit to the museum shop. As usual, it was a case of lots of children being on a very specific mission. They carefully used their maths skills in order to figure out if they could actually spend every penny that they brought with them. Most managed it!

The Beaney is a lovely museum to visit, not only is it filled with interesting permanent and temporary exhibitions, it is also free and the staff there are very welcoming and friendly. Everyone enjoyed their visit.

We were lucky on the way back, as we managed to secure the whole of the front of the top deck of the bus. If you think back to your childhood and remember the excitement of sitting up on the front of the top deck of the bus, you can probably picture the image of delighted children waving at the world and pretending to steer the bus on the journey back to school. There were even arms up in the air, when we pretended we were on a roller coaster, as the bus made its scenic journey along the winding roads and up and down the hills that make the roads in this part of Kent such an interesting drive.

A very happy bunch of children and staff arrived back in Ash, with just enough time left over before the end of the school day, to sit on the field and enjoy an ice lolly as a treat for excellent behaviour all round.