On Thursday 20 June, nearly 70 excited students and their teachers boarded the College buses to head to the Ginger Factory Yandina. We were accompanied by wonderful parent volunteers to lead small groups as we were shown around the varied sections of the venue. Each class enjoyed a train ride, a boat trip ‘around the world’ seeking the cheeky gingerbread man and a tour of the ginger processing factory. Some students enjoyed a wander through the rainforest and an impromptu game of chess.
The highlight connecting us to our unit learning was the bee show. We thought we knew quite a lot about bees but we now know even more. We saw the beekeeper in the protective gear gently smoke the hive to dissuade the guards from ordering an attack. Then he or she was able to remove a tray full of honey from a hive, weighing nearly 3kg. We could smell the delicious honey. We were able to SEE lots and lots of bees in real hives busily working away. We looked carefully to find the ones doing their waggle dances to communicate with each other. As we look forward to the approaching holidays we feel sad for the precious bees who NEVER have any time off! (And especially the females who do all the real work! The drones just make babies with the queen).
We all craved gingerbread then, so we will be decorating gingerbread men with our grandparents when they are our guests next week.
Amelia: “Step by step we walked to the bus. I was excited to go to the Ginger Factory. Rrrrr..the bus doors opened and we went in. Hannah sat next to me and we played tic tac toe on the bus. We sang songs for the bus driver. My favourite song that we sang to him was Super Saviour. While we were singing, time flew by. We were there! I hopped off as quickly as I could. We put our bags in the staff kitchen. My favourite thing was the boat ride. I spotted all the gingerbread man.”
Hannah: “On Thursday we went on an excursion to the Ginger Factory. My favourite thing was the boat ride. We started off slowly but then bump! There was a little bump but it didn’t matter. My favourite country was India. I liked how the puppets move. We got to go two times on the boat. My leader, Mr Buckland bought some ginger lollies. We didn’t get them- Mr Buckland’s family did.”
From the editor: *NB. Mrs Smith was minding the group while Mr B went shopping. 🙂
Anika: “On Thursday we went to the Ginger Factory. I liked the steam train ride because we got to see everything there. We had lunch there. We went on two boat rides. It was awesome there. We saw the Bee Show. In the Bee Show we saw real bees at work. My mum came to the Ginger Factory too. We got to see how they make the ginger. Some can be spicy.”
I loved the bus.
Tanner: “There are so many wonderful places at the Ginger Factory! “Where do I want to go first?” I thought. I was excited to go on the factory tour with my friends. It was so BIG, it was as big as four trucks on top of each other! We saw what ginger looks like before and after it had gone through the factory. It was so cool. We learnt about how they grow and harvest the ginger. In the factory also we saw how they turn the ginger into sweet treats. Yum!“
Ashley: “Yay, we are off to the Ginger Factory! On the boat ride we saw the gingerbread man, my tummy started to rumble! I was sitting in the front of the boat with Tanner and Lauren. I could see the water below, then suddenly it splashed on the boat! I had so much fun.“
We continue to have fun as we learn in Year 1, the Wondrous Workers.
Lin Smith for the Wondrous Team
