The Two Oceans Aquarium is a wonderful place for families, individuals, young and old to enjoy. The Aquarium offers a world of opportunities to explore and discover what the warm Indian Ocean with its bright and colourful fish and corals has to offer. In contrast, the cold Atlantic with its silver shoaling fish, swaying kelp and sleek predators, is sure to mesmerise and leave visitors marvelling at a world unseen by many. The Aquarium is an all-weather, all-ages destination, with loads of opportunities to explore.
Children learn in so many ways and a visit to the Aquarium is the perfect opportunity to explore new learning possibilities. Catering to toddlers, young children, and even inquisitive teenagers, when visiting the Aquarium there are touch points and opportunities for learning all around.
All children have a natural sense of curiosity that leads them to explore and discover the world around them. At the Two Oceans Aquarium, the bright colours of the tropical fish provide a wonderful opportunity to stimulate toddlers’ learning around colours and shapes. Moms and dads can help the little ones identify each fish’s colour and the distinct markings on the animals. Some might be yellow with black triangles or others might be blue with dark spots. Get the little ones to say the colours and shapes aloud and watch them learn while having fun.
The Touch Pool is an absolute favourite with children! This area allows them to get their hands wet while inspecting various species of marine plants and animals. The Touch Pool is staffed by trained staff and volunteers who interact with visitors to help them explore and discover this tactile world. This is also the perfect place to get young children to explore different textures and name them. Tongue weed is bumpy, while sea lettuce is slimy. Sea stars have knobby skin, while chitons have ridges! For the older children, the learning possibilities at the Touch Pool are endless. They can ask the staff on duty about how various marine animals breathe under water, what they eat and how they move.
The I&J Children’s Play Centre offers oceans of fun for children between the ages of four and ten. The kiddies can take part in arts and crafts or can watch an educational puppet show. Each show has a theme and is designed at teaching around environmental issues such as littering, the food chain, and plastic bags and their impact on the environment. Without even realising, children will learn in a fun and interactive way.
In the Penguin Exhibit teaching around sounds is easily achieved. Listen to the sound of the waterfall and the frog sounds. And when the penguins make their voices heard, the sounds are great to teach about volume and the various sounds animals make.
The Aquarium’s Save Our Seas Foundation Shark Exhibit houses ragged-tooth sharks in a two million-litre display that shows off the magnificence of these incredible predators, while the Kelp Forest Exhibit brings the world of an ocean forest to visitors. These areas are perfect to teach older children about the food web, how ecosystems work, and why it is important to do our bit to look after the ocean. Powerful environmental messages around overfishing and plastic pollution, and crafted to speak to different age groups, are dotted around the Aquarium. These provide touch points for adults to speak and explain about these important issues, to children.
Bring the family and enjoy not only a fun visit to the Aquarium, but also one that will guide learning and growth for children of all ages.
