Kids at the Conservatories - Talented Plants Tour

Supertree : Gardens by the Bay

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 We are back to Gardens by the Bay over the weekend. We were invited as the media , to attend their recently launched educational programmes for public - The Talented Plants Tour.


This tour is part of a series of guided conservatory tours known as KIDS AT THE CONSERVATORIES that are specially designed for kids ages 4-9.

Read here for our earlier reviews
Gardens by the Bay- Bay South Review
Gardens by the Bay for kids!

Kids at the Conservatories : Talented Plants Tour

Talented Plants Tour
The 'Talented plants tour, takes the kids a spin around the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. A programme specially designed for kids ages 4 to 6 years old, it teaches the children how useful and important plants are to all living things. A craft activity is organised at the end of the tour for the children using recycled materials to reinforce the important lessons learnt during the tour.

Talented Plants Tour

We first gathered in a room near the main lobby of Bay South. Before the start of the tour, we were briefed on what to expect of the tour and the safety precautions. We were paired up and ready to explore the gardens. Each tour group is made up of approximately 10 to 12 kids. Parents are allowed to be around for this age group during this tour.

Enjoying the tour

Initially I was a little reluctant to join the group, given that I had an exhausting morning of enrichment classes. However as time goes by, I began to relax and enjoyed myself.

I was given a sticker with my name on it. Officially only I can participate in the tour. Louis had to be supervised by my parents. However Louis did sneak in every once in a while to 'participate' in the tour.

The Flower Dome

Our First stop was the Flower Dome. We started the programme with a visit to the Australian Gardens

Ms Grace conducting the talented plants tour

Our tour guide of the day is Ms Grace. She bought us to certain plants and introduced the plants such as the bottleneck trees to us. Given our relatively short attention lifespans, she spend about 5 minutes each on the individual plants and explained the benefits of the plants. We were allowed to touch and smell the plants along the way.

Flowers at the Flower Dome

The tour in the Flower Dome lasted about 30 minutes. We did not explore the whole of the flower dome (which probably can take up to 1 hour of so). Remember to get your stamp before you leave the flower dome for a re-entry to explore at your own pace after the tour. There are alot more to see and explore in the Flower Dome.

Cloud Forest

Our next stop is the Cloud Forest. For those first time visitors, the entrance is a sight to behold. In fact you can tell who are the first visitors as they will be the ones saying ohs and ahs followed by a session of phototaking from all possible angles of the impressive waterfalls.

Cloud Forest

We were introduced to some plants like the coffee plants and learnt how it is useful to our lives. Maybe Daddy should get one of those and plant it in our gardens since he had enjoys his coffee everyday. The main part of the cloud forest was actually to take a walk on the Cloud Walk. As time is limited, we had skipped the secret gardens as well as the interactive exhibits like the GB model.

If you like to linger around the cloud walk and admire the scenery, do remember to get a stamp for re-entry. There are definitely more things to explore at the Cloud Forest. Our tour of the domes lasted about 1 hour. Thereafter we proceed back to the room for our activities section of the tour.

Activity Time

For the activity, we are to make our own bottleneck tree from newspaper and a bottle of empty mineral water (you need to bring your own bottle). This is the part that ALL the kids and parents enjoyed. It was a relatively easy activity for us to do and after about 15 minutes, we all have a part of Gardens by the Bay to bring home with us.

Happy

As you can see, I had a great time during the activity session. Overall the tour was not to overwhelming for the kids, lasting for a total of 1.5 hours. Some parts of the tour were a little rush given the time constraint. We feel that in addition to the tour, perhaps the organisers may considered an additional activity book/sheet that is link to the tour. That way, we can make a checklist of what we we had learnt and the tour would be more interactive as well.

For the first timers to the Gardens by the Bay, this tour may be a good introduction to the conservatories. For repeated visitors, if you want an edutainment tour for kids, you may consider this option.
For the seasoned visitors, this tour may be underwhelming as its purpose is to give an introduction to the conservatories for the kids.

The tour is currently only avaliable during the September school holidays. As of today , booking is closed. However we understand that Gardens by the may reintroduced this event in the near future as part of the tours avaliable at the Gardens.

After the activity, we were specially invited by Gardens by the Bay to take a walk on the OCBC skyway (Note: This is not part of the tour)
Since we had not been there the last time we visited , we gladly took up the offer.
It did not take us long to run walk across the bridge as it was only 128 m long. Even when we were suspended for about 21 meters above ground (about 7 stories high), we did not seem to have a fear of heights and enjoyed our trip up the skywalk.

The Wacky Duo at the OCBC Skywalk

Thanks Gardens by the Bay for the opportunity to participate in the tour. We had an enjoyable afternoon.

Media Invite

The Little Details

Talented Plant Tour
Suitable for: 4 - 6 years olds
Date: 1, 2, 4 & 6 September 2012
Time: 10.30am & 2.00pm
Duration: 1.5 hours
Fees: $18 per child (excludes conservatories ticket)
Group size: 10 – 12 children (Tour will only run with a group size of at least 10 children)

Gardens by the Bay
18 Marina Gardens Drive
Singapore 018953

Directions to the gardens are available here
See map for details

Disclaimer : The Wacky Duo were given a complimentary tour as part of the review. No monetary rewards were given. All opinions are of our own.