Snakes, tortoises, turtles, alligators and chameleons
We visited the snake park as a part of our field trip along with our Lower Elementary children. The children were pretty excited about the visit and we reached the park at about 10 am. The authorities in the park took keen interest in explaining all the varieties of snakes in the park. We understood a lot about reptiles and particularly snakes – their habitat, the prey they eat and their ecosystem.
Children saw and heard about all these things with fear and excitement. The park also had a generous number of alligators, chameleons, tortoises, and turtles to add to its colours. After all, this was India’s first reptile park established in the year 1972.We followed up with a discussion at school on what we saw, what we learnt and how it has influenced our thinking. The children are eagerly looking forward to our subsequent trips to the park.
Visit to Fort St.George
Fort St. George is the first British Fort in India, which was built in the 17th century. Apparently, the entire Chennai city evolved around this Fortress, which was earlier uninhabited. We visited Fort. St. George along with our Elementary Environment children for a field trip on the 1st of September.
We had to go through a number of security checks as this Fort also houses the legislative assembly of Tamilnadu. Then we made our way to the Museum situated inside the Fort. The objects on display in the museum included swords, coins, clothes used by the British soldiers, paintings of kings and queens, first silk flag that was hoisted on the 15th August, 1947 at Fort St. George.
There were a number of other artifacts from Scotland, England, France and India as well on display. They had Braille for the benefit of visually challenged individuals. We felt happy for having witnessed a piece of Chennai’s history and it is also named as one of the 163 notified areas in Tamilnadu for preservation.