Soft!  Furry!  Friendly!  Cute!  This is how the children at Strand on the Green Infant School described a gorgeous collection of farm animals which visited them on the school field recently.  And the best thing was that children were allowed to carefully and gently handle these creatures, giving soft cuddles to tiny new-born rabbits, tickles to baby chicks and warmed milk to hungry lambs and kids.  

The special visitors were supplied by the “Appreciating Animals” farm which encourages even the youngest children to interact, touch and feed the animals whilst learning about how to be gentle and to care for them. 

There was great excitement as some of the more adventurous animals – notably some very noisy geese – made a bid for freedom and escaped before being chased by teachers and rounded up! 

Not everyone wanted to hold a rat at the start.  By the end of the session some children discovered that chicks are rather good at sneaking up into the warmth of sleeves (and that they are difficult to extract from there!)  They even learned that rats quite like balancing on heads and shoulders!

Nobody wanted the animals to go home!