On the 23rd of April, we had Lily and the ZOOLAB company visiting us at Monkey Puzzle Angel.

All children from the nursery, and parents, were invited to take part in this activity, as this experience would give everyone the opportunity to have the first-hand experience with certain animals that we do not come across just around the corner. Learning some fun facts and all about some reptiles and insects from a knowledgeable person on the subject was also one of our first intentions with this visit.

The rooms had their individual session so Lily could use age-appropriate language and approaches. We started every single session with a simple and cute way to establish 3 important rules; “Flat Hand”, “Finger Up” and “Friendly Wave” to show Lily either the children would be brave to hold, stroke or just observe the animal presented.

Lily also brought along a giant book called “The Zagaro”. It was read as she presented each animal, and it was inspired by “The Gruffalo” book, a rat that went through the deep dark wood to meet the Zagaro!

The first animal presented was a Giant African Snail. Its name was Pierre! We learnt that Pierre, like all the other snails lives inside its shell to keep them safe from bigger animals, like birds.

Then, we met Mickey, the Millipede. Mickey, like all the other millipedes, make themselves smell bad and curl up in a shape of poo as a self-defence technique when feeling threatened. Mickey has 200 legs, and we know it by counting its segments and multiply it by 4.
We also met Jonh, the cockroach with 6 legs, a snake with a scaly belly called Eddie and we learnt the word camouflage, and at the end a gerbil, who does not like to live on its own and had a friend called Merry.

Lily ended all the 3 sessions with the encouragement, “What are you going to do now? … wash your hand!”