Grade 7 Trip
 

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Grade 7 trip to the Chongwe River and Lower Zambezi National Park

What the children had to say about

 

Fishing:

 

Mark Armstrong -

I enjoyed fishing because we caught a lot of fish

We also leaned how to fillet fish.

And Mr. Macarter said I was the best.

 

Christopher Dansie -

The Chongwe trip was excellent.

BUT!!!!!!! the fishing was better than excellent because I caught four fish before every one put their second worm on their hook.

 

Jack Ryan -

My group went fishing on Thursday. We fished at the waterfall and I caught two squeakers which you have to be very careful with because it has barbs on the end of its fins. I also caught a barble which looks like a catfish.

 

Mammals:

 

Dalitso Miti -

Mammals are to me the most interesting things on this earth. On our trip Mr Taylor took us for mammals he had a lot of knowledge on the animals of Chongwe.  Whilst we were with him we saw impala (common), buffalo, lion, kudu and many more. I learnt a lot about identifying mammals and knowing how to find animals. We also got taught about spore and dung. Mr Taylor pointed out the browse lines that the animals will browse up to.  I really learnt a lot from the grade 7 trip to Chongwe. And got better at identifying animals. 

 

Anthea Coxe -

Did you know that every single mammal has breasts in between the front legs; hair, fur or wool. That is something we were told by Mr. Taylor and Mr. McDougall. Lots of these mammals also have an apposing thumb. You can get loads of mammals in the lower Zambezi and we learnt about them. Lots of animals make a path to a river or dam so that when they are in danger they know which way to go and they know that it won’t collapse. Did you also know that when an elephant False Charges you its trunk is in the air and when it mock charges you its trunk is hanging these are some very useful facts that can help you in the future!  

 

Chimwemwe Banda -

We saw lots about mammals at the Chongwe such as impala; waterbuck, lion, leopard we also saw hippos and lots of elephants and baboons. I learnt a lot about animals. I learnt were you would find animals and what they eat.

It was really fun on the game drives we were very lucky to have seen the lion thanks to the other group who told us were it was and were also lucky to have seen the leopard.

We also saw 2 reptiles a sand snake and saw crocodiles.

  

Birds:

 

Tanna Blumberg -

Mrs. Dr Parsons took us for the topic of birds. We learnt on how to identify a bird, this was called GIS, the name you use to identify things. You listen to their call, you look at their bills and how upright they stand. In the early morning birds call each other and talk to each other this is called ‘dawn chorus’. Some birds fly in a straight line like the Egyptian goose but the lourie flies from one tree to the other. The giant kingfisher looks straight down into the water when it sees something. I learnt that the male plover looks like it is wearing a bowtie and the female wears a bra. I did a project on birds thinking I knew a lot but there were tons of things that I did not know.

 

Lee Savoury -

In my opinion birds are the most magnificent creatures ever created. They are extremely interesting to me in many ways. My favourite types of birds, naturally, are raptors. That does not mean I do not like the other birds, I just find them more interesting. Like my father birds amaze me, and I was lucky to have Mr. McDougall and Mrs. Parsons as my bird guides at Chongwe. They taught me many things about birds that I will never forget. But also I enjoyed just pointing out birds to myself and staring at them through my binoculars for a long time. I am sad that such a few people share my interest, because birds are truly fascinating. I would like to start collecting bird eggs with my dad, because they are equally as interesting as the birds themselves.

Thank you Mr. McDougall, Mrs. Dr Parsons and Mrs. Fleming.

Dan Parsons -

Birds lay eggs, they have feathers, they are warm blooded and most can fly.

To me they are the BEST, most MAGNIFICENT animals you can get in the whole world. Birds amaze me extremely. At Chongwe we saw lots of Birds and different types of birds. My mom taught us allot about birds and what they do. On the mammals trip Rory McDougall also showed us allot.

Darting:

 

Daanish Ticklay -

Have you ever dated before because it is great fun ,I enjoyed it. Darting is  when there  is a sick or wounded  animal and then you get permission from the game rangers and ZAWA to shoot it. When your darting an animal the best place to shoot it  in its hip or thigh so the medicine can react quickly and make the animal fall a sleep. If your shooting with a scope you should aim right in the middle of the x and then you shoot.  

 

Jason Woodley -

At the Chongwe trip this year I learnt a lot from darting. Darting is used for lots of purposes such as transferring animals into safer places and different places, health check-ups, animal monitoring (putting satellite collars on them for the global positioning) and many more. We all got to shoot at a dart board. It was great fun Chimfwembe and I got bulls eye making ours the best shot in the whole class. In our group Mpanga was the best girl and also the best girl in the whole class. Tommy-lee, Conor, Chris, Tanna and Laura did very good as well. It was really funny when I was shooting Mr. Coxe said That I was shooting at a Dart board not my brother!!! Chongwe this year was as fun as last. Thank you to all the staff that put valuable time and effort into  making it special for us.   

 

Heath Gross -

We went with Mr. Parsons to hippo city and shot his dart gun all that powers it is a headless 22 round.  

 

 

What is the Chongwe trip?

The grade 7 trip is the highlight of many pupils time at Musikili.  The children spend 5 nights camping on the banks of the Chongwe River supervised by an extremely experienced group of adults. Some of the children have never been out into the bush, seen elephant or hippo, or felt the thrill of catching a fish.

 

Conservation, ecology, science, art, survival skills, history ... these are just a few of the subjects covered during this excursion.  The children are divided into small groups and each group spends a morning with the mammal team, the tree and bird specialists or the fishing experts.

 

 

The afternoons are spent looking down microscopes and discovering the wonderful world of microscopic creatures, learning the basics of first aid, creating artistic masterpieces using only what they find on the banks of the river, the list just goes on and on.

 

Campfire tales, singalongs and wonderful food all ensure that a class of very tired children creep into their tents for the night, perhaps to dream about what they have seen and what new discovery tomorrow holds.

 

The Musikili community is very luck to have a number of dedicated professionals willing to give up their time to share some of their vast knowledge.  Security is the number one issue in all the supervisors and teachers minds. The camp fence is electrified and there are always adults not involved in the activity at hand keeping a wary lookout.

 

General Comments from some of the Grade 7 Class:

 

Kyra-Leigh Jackman -

My favorite part of the trip was going on the game drives and especially seeing the leopard.  And being the first group seeing two leopard.

 

Gary Quenet -

My best part of the trip was seeing all the animals especially the leopard and lion.

 

Chimfwembe Nama -

My favorite thing at Chongwe was mammals and birds because it taught me how to identify birds by their beak and size and mammals because we saw a lot.  The food was also nice.

 

Micha Mwinga -

My favorite part of Chongwe was every thing we did from learning from others to just having fun.

 

Chilekwa Munsanje -

My favorite things were learning things I did not know, the food, and I really enjoyed the staff.

 

Meagan Smith -

My best thing about Chongwe was my team and the fun we had in the car. Another thing that was great was seeing the lion and the leopard. The food was good to.

 

 

 

Contact:  The Headmaster

 

              Mr Luke Dancer

              Musikili Primary School

              P O Box 670370

              Mazabuka

              Zambia

 

 

Email:  Enquiries

 

Office Telephone: +260 3 235779

Office Cell: +260 966 861242

 

Hostel Telephone +260 3 235660

Hostel Cell 097 791 258