What better occasion to bring out the giraffe onesie than the annual Animal Day celebration? Students gathered in the Great Hall earlier this month to celebrate with games, themed snacks, music, reading and more.
World Animal Day activities are organised by Danielle, our award winning Animal Assisted Intervention (AAI) practitioner, in order to raise awareness of challenges to natural life through a variety of fun activities. This year brought a lot of themed stations including:
- The Hungry Caterpillar table allowing students to sample some of the snacks from the story, alongside a counting exercise
- Polar bear den making game that challenged students to build an igloo out of bottles
- An area focused on questioning whether it’s ethical to use animals like dolphins and orcas for entertainment
- A game of breaking plastic animals out of ice and finding them in sand that highlighted the challenges sea animals face when they get stuck
- A science experiment showing the effects of blubber on conserving heat
- A few games showing the negative impacts of animal testing
- A storytelling corner
- A station promoting awareness of bees, their habitats, and their importance in pollination
Danielle says:”It’s important to celebrate the animal world while also acknowledging the dangers they are facing. Students were really interested in learning more fun facts about animals, but also discovering how we can protect them.”
Students were also delighted to meet the two brand new members of the Animal Assisted Intervention team: Nibble and Nugget. The two dwarf hamsters are joining an already established team of support animals that include: Stitch- the bearded dragon, Simba and Davey – the friendly tortoises, Pepper and Pandora – the adorable guinea pigs.
