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00 Teach Nursery.

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greatcreatures

Try recreating a veterinary surgery in yourplay corner, suggest Wendy Bowkett.While patching up poor paws, childrenwill make many new discoveries...

When working in pre-schoolsettings, I often find thatinspiration for a theme or topiccomes from a chance remark

of a child during circle time or when greetingthem on a Monday morning with the question‘What happened during your weekend?’ Theidea for a veterinary surgery came aboutwhen a little girl arrived at nursery with a softtoy cat wearing a bandage on one of its frontlegs. The child’s daddy had accidentally runover their pet cat when reversing his car outof the drive. The cat was taken to the vet, hadan operation and came home the followingday with its leg in plaster.

The children at nursery were fascinated bythe event which sparked off conversationsand imaginative play activities with the smallworld animals throughout most of the day.

During quiet time later that morning,children suggested we make up a story abouta dog running out of a garden into the roadand what happened next. The sequence ofevents was very elaborate but resulted in theplay corner becoming a ‘vets’. The childrenthought their toy animals could be checkedover to see if they were healthy, to have theirvaccinations and, of course, operations – theidea was born!

Setting up surgery Clear a corner of a room and place a fewchairs against a wall for the waiting room.Nearby put a chair and table with a notebookand pencils to record appointments. A toytelephone and cash register complete thebasic reception area.

If you have space, place a small screen toseparate off an area to create the consultationroom with an examination table, weighingscales and wipes, notepad and pencil.

smallDevelop the children’s

observational skills by

noticing details, and

discussing what they

see; thickness of fur,

colours, length of

tails, etc.

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Play corners are imaginative, social activitiesand are ideal for children to experience andexplore different roles in the world of adults.They provide opportunities for children tounderstand the views and needs of others.There is great educational value inencouraging children to act out relationshipsand behaviour unrelated to their everyday lives.They can learn about people, places andoccupations as well as recreate their ownexperiences.

This kind of imaginative experience isimportant to a number of children who haveno pets and never had the opportunity ofvisiting a veterinary surgery. In this case someexplanation might be necessary beforeopening the ‘vets’. As an early yearspractitioner you could take on the role of thereceptionist and/or vet initially to demonstratetelephone skills, writing appointments anddealing with clients or customers, as well asshowing how to handle animals. Without thisprompting children may just use the area forplaying as they would in a home corner, officeor shop. Obviously if children are familiar withvets, give them the opportunity to add theirexperiences and expertise.

Most children may already understand that,apart from emergencies (as in a doctor’ssurgery) an appointment is needed. Othersmay have seen first-hand that the examinationtable is disinfected after each pet, to preventthe spread of germs.

Can parents help?One of our children’s parents was a vet andshe brought in several empty unused medicinebottles and syringes (minus needles!),bandages and tubes to add to the play corner.Some equipment had to be thought aboutcarefully due to safety and hygiene issues.However, although this nursery was in a rurallocation and the ‘vets’ was a very popular playcorner, we were aware of over-playing the ideawhen an operating theatre and x-ray machine were suggested!

■ An important aspect of having aveterinary surgery in your pre-school is toallow children the opportunity of learninghow to look after pets, respecting theirdiffering needs and how to care for them. Itgives ample scope for children to expresstheir ideas and feelings, and to developstrategies to cope with new situations. ■ Encourage questioning. Most pets havespecific diets to keep them healthy andsome foods we eat may be harmful to them.How important are vaccinations and regular weight checks? Can dogs eatchocolate? Should rabbits eat lettuce? What do snakes eat?■ Emphasise caring for pets. Many cats and dogs require grooming to preventmatted fur and fur balls. What aboutbudgerigars, hamsters, rabbits and long-haired guinea-pigs? How do our pets keeptheir teeth clean? ■ All aspects of animal care have parallelswith children’s health and well-being. Givethem plenty of opportunity to comparedifferences and similarities as well asdiscussing the choices children can makethat pets can not.

learning &development

■ Stage a pet-of-the-day month. We hadreal rabbits, guinea-pigs, chipmunks andhens at our nursery, but we also borrowedsoft toys to add to the menagerie. Amouse, gerbil or hamster may enjoy acouple of hours in your pre-school. Ratsand guinea-pigs make good guests as dorabbits with careful handling. Include fish,birds, insects and reptiles or perhaps aquiet cat or dog could pop in for a fewminutes.■ Introduce scientific concepts. It will beobvious to most children that birds cannotlive in a tank filled with water while fishcan. However, we need to encouragechildren to explore and talk about why thisis so. ■ Develop the children’s observationalskills by noticing details, spottingdifferences and discussing what they see:thickness of fur, colours, length of tails,shape of ears or how they move. Childrenwill notice the smallest of details given thechance. How many claws are there on aguinea-pig’s front and back feet? Why dorabbits have such powerful back legs? Doall furry animals have whiskers?

1. First handexperience (Knowledge andunderstanding of the world)

2 .Taking care of pets(Personal, social andemotional development)

“There is great educational valueinencouragingchildren to act outrelationships and behaviourunrelated totheir everyday lives.”

WENDY BOWKETT

■ Allow the children to choose a name for the surgery, written in large letters andplaced in a prominent position. An open and closed sign with pictorial clues can beplaced close by with opening times displayed. ■ Children often hear telephone conversations at home and will begin to recognisedifferent telephone voices and manners, and use that knowledge when, as thereceptionist, they discuss appointment times with a ‘client’ rather than chatter as theywould to their mum. ■ The appointment book, vaccination cards and prescription pad will provide andencourage children to make marks as well as write letters. ■ Many children will begin to recognise words related to pets if relevant magazines,leaflets and books are available for them to look at while waiting for their appointmentat the surgery. ■ Give children time to describe their pet’s symptoms, condition and general health todevelop their communication skills, encouraging the use of correct terminology forequipment and diet to expand their general vocabulary.

3 .Talking and writing(Communication, language and literacy)

Handlingmoney(Problem solving,

reasoning and numeracy)■ A veterinary corner with a reception andwaiting room will no doubt have a cash registeron hand so that clients can pay for their pet’streatment. It provides an ideal opportunity forprice lists to be used with pictorial reference tothe coins available. Our corner provided arabbit consultation for just 20p. How muchwould a dog visit cost?■ Set up your veterinary surgery to offer toys orfood for sale. Ensure that price labels are clearwith coin picture references attached. Askparents to bring sealed, clean, empty animalfood bags, clean grooming brushes or spareleads to help with a display of goods for sale. ■ Weighing scales add another dimension, areyou feeding the new puppy too much or is theold cat too thin?

Walk The dog(Physical development)

■ Provide a dog walking service at yourveterinary surgery. We decided to try thisbecause two of our local veterinary nursesused to go past nursery walking dogs mostdays. The children would take a soft toy dogaround the nursery and garden and be timedwith a stop watch. Slow walking would take atleast five minutes; longer if there was someoneto chat with on the way. However the fastroute took less than a minute!■ Another favourite activity was pretending tobe different animals. There were mice scurryingon tiptoes, cats slinking slowly near to theground then pouncing while stick insectsmoved so slowly that no one noticed. ■ Another aspect of the corner was learninghandling techniques. Some pets required firmhandling while being gentle; a difficult conceptfor under-5s to grasp. The children were alsoseen cleaning the consulting room and floorsto keep germs to a minimum.

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4 . Make a fish tank

(Creative development)■ Help children to create animal puppets,masks or make observational drawingsand paintings that use their own ideas orthose of others.■ We made beautiful collars for our softtoys. Some of our kittens had gemsattached to fabric, felt or soft foammeasured to fit around each neck. Acouple of children made matching leads.■ Hang fish shapes in an open box with aback drop of a blue colour wash to createfish tanks and aquariums for extremelycolourful tropical fish.■ Fill clear plastic drink bottles with twigsand attach stick insects made very simplyby folding and shaping thin card strips ofgreens and brown.

VET RESOURCES TO CONSIDER...

Professional touchA new educationprogramme from

veterinary charity PDSAincludes a range of freeinteractive resources for nurseries.Visit the website to inspire yourtopic. pdsa.org.uk/education

6 .

Paws for thought

The cat's pyjamasPerfect for a topic onpets, Seven New

Kittens is a charming storythat supports the beliefsand culture element of the early yearscurriculum. booksatpress.co.uk