Kids at the Conservatories

With the September school holidays upon us in Singapore, the Gardens by the Bay which has not seen any let up in the flow of visitors since it opened at the end of June, has been running what is the first of their school holiday programmes which they hope to extend to the future school holidays as well. The programmes, named “Kids at the Conservatories“, is a series of specially curated guided tours aimed at children between the ages of 4 to 9 and each includes a tour of the two conservatories with an interactive activity at the end of each which reinforces the key lessons learnt during the tour.

A school holiday kids programme in the clouds! The Gardens by the Bay’s school holiday Education and Outreach Programme has kids on the Cloud Walk learning more about plants and their usefulness.

I was able to follow one of the activities, Talented Plants, designed for children of ages 4 – 6. While at the initial introduction, many of the young participants seemed reluctant to part with their parents, most had warmed up by the time the guided walk took them into the cool conservatories, starting with the Australian Garden in the Flower Dome and participated in answering questions that the guide, who introduced herself as ‘Teacher’ Grace, posed along stops where she introduced plants and their usefulness to other living things around them.

‘Teacher’ Grace introducing water holding bromeliads in which tree frogs lay their eggs at the Cloud Forest.

The walk also took the kids (and their parents) through the Cloud Forest, where one of the things I did learn was that tree frogs lay their eggs in water holding plants known as bromeliads. The walk which took a little over an hour ended with an activity during which the participants were able to participate in a craft activity using recycled materials – used plastic bottles and newspapers – which were transformed into a ‘bottle tree’ which they were introduced to during the visit to the Flower Dome – which judging by the smiles on the faces of the kids at the end of it, was very well received. The tours, more information about which can be found at the Gardens by the Bay’s website (click here), are unfortunately all fully booked for this holidays, but do look out for more at the next school holidays.

Grace and the participants in the Cloud Forest.

The participants at the source of the waterfall.

The interactive activity at the end of the programme which saw the kids turn recycled materials into a bottle tree which they could each take home.

Real plants were used.

A proud owner of a ‘bottle tree’.