In school talk!

RE: In school talk!

Clare Tapsfield-Wright — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 18:09:29 GMT

They are very young at five for anything complex. Good opportunity to tell them how to approach and touch dogs and cats , the blue dog book is very good if it's still around for preventing dog bites. At that age they are probably really happy with basics like bandages and stethoscopes and farty rubber gloves. Short attention span so it will be over in no time

RE: In school talk!

J G Wray — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 16:43:21 GMT

Finish with blowing up rubber gloves and making a special noise

RE: In school talk!

Rob Davis — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 16:15:12 GMT

[quote user="Anthony Dennison"]Xrays of exotic pets, like tortoises, birds and snakes... dress up is also great.[/quote]

When I did one of these at my daughter's school some years ago, I borrowed a load of old radiographs from Cambridge vet school and played guess the animal - we managed to have a monkey, a lion, a squirrel, an elephant foetus and best of all, a set of radiographs of a young giraffe's neck which spanned 4 large films!

RE: In school talk!

Anthony Dennison — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 12:11:50 GMT

I took my dog, he loved it, the kids loved him. Xrays of exotic pets, like tortoises, birds and snakes... dress up is also great.

RE: In school talk!

Noweia — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 19:14:52 GMT

We printed off a couple of animal skeleton images, laminated them, then cut them into a few bits (depending on the age of the kids). They had great fun trying to assemble them!

Also if you had any x-rays of odd FBs to play, 'Guess what the dog swallowed'! (I photoshopped various objects into a dog's abdomen to great effect).

RE: In school talk!

Gareth C. — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 15:33:43 GMT

yes i also take the dog and get all 30 of them to listen to her hear then get the, to hide treats round the room for her to find as a reward

RE: In school talk!

Bob Russell — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 15:22:36 GMT

I take our soppy (straight backed!) GSD and a teaching stethoscope. He will happily lie down and have any number of kids check his heart beat! Best possible day out for him, kids love the idea that such a large dog is so gentle!

RE: In school talk!

Rebecca Marchewka — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 14:57:11 GMT

Best question I have had on a school visit was "which would win in a fight, a snake or a vulture?"

RE: In school talk!

Iain Richards — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 13:59:37 GMT

Taking an ultrasound scanner and shown a heart beat is fun too. Taking a live animal is better still. I've twice now taken one of my cats (they were the coolest "cool cat" that ever lived).

Note of caution - I have had little Johnny ask "where do puppies come from?" !

RE: In school talk!

Joyce Whitehead — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 13:34:21 GMT

All great suggestions here, I'd add in that we have a set of specimen pots, very firmly glued and taped so they can't be opened, with worms (horse and small animal), various teeth (good comparison with theirs) and the odd tick etc. Older classes I often take a microscope with a flea on a slide too.

RE: In school talk!

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 12:50:21 GMT

Do a little role play – morning surgery at the animal doctor's, and an "operation" – there's bound to be something in the classroom that can serve as the "Xray machine" – dress up one of the teachers in the full works, gown, hat, mask, gloves to do the operation and remove that bunch of keys from the teddy bear. One of my "patients" is always "Naughty Chicken" (reminiscent of Rod Hull's Emu, you get the idea). Get them to shout out "stethoscope". Take several cheap stethoscopes and let them listen to themselves, or to you, if they want to (some will be very forward, some will be very shy). Let them "bandage" (once round with the Vetrap) the patients' limbs. I used to take one of my own dogs, until he passed away, who just loved children and would let them bandage every paw and his tail....

Don't try to make it educational, you'll just bore them. The nearest to education I ever get is showing a few pictures of skeletons, including a whale, and telling them that the Blue Whale is the largest animal ever to have lived on the planet (if his tail was here in your classroom, his head would be right up there where the cars are parked... if he put his head on Mrs. Smith's car, he'd squash it flat!) The teachers will be going to follow up a bit later on and extract any educational value that they can.

The time will pass just like that!

RE: In school talk!

ruths — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 12:49:26 GMT

I think what you've got sounds fab- and the microchipping is geat- see if they can scan it and say the numbers (though you might be there for ever)

Bandaging is alos great.

You could also suggest that the school extend the theme a ,little and make a vet surgery- ours did a little reception bit with a ty phone and pretend appt diary - agian , there's some writing and talkng involved...

And tbh one thing I'd add is the advice around washing hands!!

There's some nice videos about handwashing for kids.

You'd be doing eveyone a favour -))

Have fun -))

RE: In school talk!

Nicola Cole — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 12:01:59 GMT

Be prepared for lots of questions about why animals get poorly and what happens when they die!

RE: In school talk!

joanne mcallister — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 11:34:14 GMT

microchipping a soft toy and getting them to scan it is popular

RE: In school talk!

Sarah Wheadon — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 11:11:21 GMT

Dressing up with scrub tops/hats etc and role play. A little Q and A session always goes down well.