Today Nursery had a visit from an expert visitor of an unusual kind….. a therapy dog named Ralph! The children were so excited to meet Ralph and his carer Sarah, who came from the charity Pets are therapy, who kindly agreed to spare what little spare time they have to visit us, as part of our case study “How do people show they care?” Sarah explained about the important work that the pair do in the community and the important job Ralph has to make friends and bring people happiness.

The children looked at photos of different therapy dogs and the kinds of people that they help, including the elderly, children in schools, people in hospital and hospices, as well as adults with learning difficulties and even people in prison. The dogs bring healing to those who are feeling very low, poorly or suffer with anxiety or worry.

The children were so excited to stroke Ralph and ask questions about his job and about what he needs, to care for him, after looking after so many others…. “He likes sausages and cheese best”. They thought he was “very kind”.

Thank you for coming to visit Ralph and Sarah – we very much appreciate your time and kindness.

Nursery this week have been thinking about the kind and right thing to do for others as a continuation of our current case study “What do stories tell us about being kind?” We had another visit from our Kindness Elves, who again brought us another story titled “The Bog Baby” by Jeanne Willis. Through this story the children have thought about what being kind really means as sometimes we all would like to take things “home” to look after or keep safe, as we think we can love them better. However is this always the right and kindest thing to do for that being? The girls in the story find out that this is not the case.

The children listened carefully to the story and thought hard about the kind of environment that the Bog Baby lives in. They explored what a pond and bog actually are. The children had lots of fun putting on their imaginary goggles and pretending to swim in a pond thorough the use of a real life video of under a ponds surface. As the children swam they thought about what they could see through the murky, green water such as mud, stones, plants and creatures that live in and under the pond. They thought about the smell of the pond and their clothes as they got out!

This weeks “Get Smart” tasks were to create a bog of their own in provision using materials and larger loose parts. The children also had lots of fun exploring the pond we had created in the water tray to enhance this weeks provision. The children loved investigating what pond creatures they could find amongst the stones and plants in the green water. As a separate active task the children were asked to observe two tanks of water, one taken from the sea and one from a pond. They were encouraged to go and stand by the tank which they thought the Bog Baby would prefer to live in, thinking about the creatures feelings. The majority of children choose correctly, stating “He likes the green, dirty water best”.

Our beautiful work this week was to create our own Bog Baby’s using salt dough. We closely observed and counted the features of the character and the children then used their wonderful imaginations to create a Bog Baby of their own. They had lots of fun squashing, squelching, moulding, rolling and marking the dough to shape and add details with a tool to their creations. They then enhanced their bog babies using small loose parts to decorate add features to their models. Just look how beautiful they are!

Finally we re-read the story and thought about whether the actions of the girls taking the Bog Baby home in a jam jar to live in their shed was the right and kind thing to do? We discussed this individually and these are some of the children’s responses.

Well done Nursery – another busy but wonderful week!