It was a very early start (well done to everyone for getting there well before time!) but the children all seemed suitably impressed when the Biomes of The Eden Project came into view. After dropping our things in The Core we went to see the WEEE Man (a giant sculpture made out of electrical waste) and then onto the Tropical Rainforest Biome.

The staff had opened the treetop walk especially for us and, although it was quite daunting, all the children went up onto the platform. At 30m up it gives a great view of the whole Biome, and we were amazed to hear that this would only be about half the height of the canopy in a real rainforest!
We then had a walk round the Biome, visiting the Malaysian House and learning about some of the many products that we all eat and use that come from the rainforest such as coffee, chocolate and bananas – they even had a tree filled with fluff that is used to stuff teddy bears!

After lunch, and some delicious lemon birthday cakes supplied by birthday boy Tom, we went into our workshop. Here each group picked out 6 items they thought would make the ‘best’ packed lunch. They were then given a map of the Eden Project and grid references for each item so they could locate it and find out more about it – where it came from, how healthy it was, if the packaging was recyclable etc. Back at The Core we discussed what we meant by the ‘best’ pack lunch and what things we need to think about when we are buying food. We will be sharing this information with all of you in our packed lunch leaflets that will be sent out at the end of term.

A well done to the children who were all great and a massive thanks to all the parents who came with us today and helped, and also to all the parents for getting the children up so early and being understanding about us being so late back – it was a long day, but we had fun and Eden is a very inspiring place to visit for our environmental topic.