The Butterfly House Experience

On Thursday, Room 4 enjoyed a trip to the Otago Museum’s tropical rainforest. The trip was an introduction to our Rainforest Unit. Firstly, we were taken into Discovery World and our helpful instructor Eden talked to us about the rainforest ecosystem. “This is the equator,” she said, holding a model of the earth, “Who can tell me what the weather’s like here?”

Soon we got a taste for tropical weather ourselves when we ventured into the Butterfly House. Sweltering in the humid heat, butterflies swirled around us. We explored their colourful habitat, gasping as butterflies settled on our shoulders and squirming as we watched the tarantulas. “The butterflies didn’t care, they flew right up into your face, It was fun and tickled.” said Ben of Room 4.

But when it was time to leave it was almost a relief to step back into the cool, air-conditioned museum.

Next, we were split into 4 groups and were assigned a task, by Eden, to find more about the animals and plants that lived in the Tropical Rainforest. Venturing back into the Butterfly house, we had to take photos and present our findings to the class. Some groups made movies, did interpretives dances and an adventurous group even wrote a rap about the Rainforest. Afterwards, we were allowed to play in Discovery World, where we enjoyed stomping on the foot piano, freezing our shadows and playing air hockey. This was an amazing experience and a great start to our Rainforest unit.

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Thanks for reading this article from Room 4’s Hail Reporters 2017.