Planning your next School incursion or show
Getting quality educational activities for kids school incursions or at school childrens parties and events is not all that easy. While clowns, fairies and the like are everywhere, getting your children to have a fun and educational show all at the same time is never as easy as simply picking up the phone. As a teacher you, like the kids must do your homework as well! There are a lot of things to consider including cost, subject matter and of course how good are the providers at doing that most vital thing, teaching!
Some incursions are not all that different to what a teacher can do themselves. These are typically a provider coming in, standing in front of the kids and lecturing them. Teachers are aware of this and so will tend to book hands-on incursions or excurions . A visit to a zoo is a great way to see the animals, but most are just that, seeing only. In response to the demand for hands-on wildlife education one or more people in Melbourne now do various reptile shows, displays and incursions. However the degree of interaction with the kids varies quite a lot depending on who the provider actually is. The mobile reptile show typically fits within one of three main types. Best known are the mobile zoos or boring static displays. These people typically come in a large truck and provide an educational mobile display which is complete with animals in naturalistic cages. The advantage over a normal zoo is that these people come to you and you and your students usually save a lot of time and money but not needing to hire buses to take the kids around. The downside of course is that no mobile zoo will be bringing elephants, bears of Giraffe's to your school or child care centre.
The second most common incursion is the interactive show, which is typically a show and tell type of affair. The handler goes through a series of animals, each of which is brought out and shown to the kids. Occasionally the animal may perform a trick and at best the kids may be lucky enough to pat an animal for a few seconds, before it is moved on to the next waiting child.
In Melbourne and elsewhere in Victoria only one company is known to do hands on reptile shows and wildlife displays during kids school shows and school incursions. The reptiles and other animals are brought along in boxes and after a brief explanation as to the basics, the reptiles are handed to the kids to hold the animals. Generally multiple animals are out at the same time and the childrens education is enhanced by the magnificent hands-on experience. Such incursions are not as cheap as some of the alternatives, but are invariably way cheaper than pretty much all excursion alternatives. Some periods such as science week and end of term get busy, but for most of the year securing a booking for a great school incursion or show is not too hard.