Giving talks to groups of children.

Re: Giving talks to groups of children.

salome2001 — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:52:17 GMT

Had a thought while driving this afternoon with "Old Macdonald Had a Farm" CD on to try to tame the wailing from the back seat- anyone tried getting the kids to sing this as a "warm-up"? (you could really violate the Healthy Schools policy by giving a chocolate frog to every child who suggested a new animal). if you were really lucky, you could keep this going for a good 10 minutes or so and then pack up and leave :)

Re: Giving talks to groups of children.

Gillian Mostyn — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:29:07 GMT

After telling a reception class that we should be brushing our pets teeth as well as our own, one child put her hand up and asked 'but how do I brush my goldfish's teeth.' She had a point!

Re: Giving talks to groups of children.

Rob Davis — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:44:41 GMT

I gave a talk to a year 1 class some time ago. While I was asking them about their own animals, one boy put his had up and said, "My grandad had a dog, but he got old and sick, so he took him into the woods and let him go". Cue awkward silence, followed by, "Anyway....." and moved on rapidly!

Re: Giving talks to groups of children.

salome2001 — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:06:32 GMT

Love it!!! Have given a talk to a reception class in the past and found a couple of bandaged stuffed toys worked well. Asking "who has a pet at home?" to a group of inner London kids resulted in about 1 child in the entire class responding in the affirmative.

Unfortunately my son's new nursery now wants me to go in and talk to a bunch of toddlers...

Re: Giving talks to groups of children.

Jacquin Mitchell — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:48:16 GMT

Thanks everyone. It went okayish. They were pretty well under control when talking about what a vet does, became slightly over excited while listening to their own hearts with a stethoscope ( I was surprised at how exciting they found this but forgot to warn them NOT to yell into it while someone was wearing it) and the whole thing descended into chaos when I got the rats out!

Some lessons learned.

Jacq

Re: Giving talks to groups of children.

Robert Whiteford — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 09:13:53 GMT

And a 50ml syringe ( for the ooo-ah factor ) and skoosh Brown Owl ( if thats the correct term ) with water! (obviously no needles!). . .Always goes down well with the wee ones. .

Re: Giving talks to groups of children.

Ian Mostyn — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:02:30 GMT

Take old x-rays, bandages, cuddly toys, stethoscopes, friendly pet (tortoise etc). Kids want to see things, hold things and ideally, go home with things. Gillian made an xray machine so they could guess what was in the cardboard box. Just xrayed some scissors and then taped them int he box. Good fun guessing! Get a cheap stethoscope, ideally with your practice name laser etched, and leave it in the vet corner at a school - good PR!!

Ian

Re: Giving talks to groups of children.

Arlo Guthrie — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:49:10 GMT

This was talked about (context of nursery schools) in another thread here:

http://www.vetsurgeon.org/forums/p/1733/2061.aspx

Re: Giving talks to groups of children.

Hannah Wynne Richards — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:48:28 GMT

Nothing too gory They'll love it , but their parents won't

Wynne