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I must confess that it was with some trepidation that I turned up for the Activity Day last Tuesday morning. Having been a teacher all my working life, I know intimately all the problems associated with children, but I was pleasantly surprised and I ended the day with a feel-good factor. The 35 or so children were pleasant, happy, keen and co-operative and it was a pleasure spending a day in their company.
 
I did enjoy the farm animals, although the children were very wary of them, despite my assurances that the animals were more scared of the children than the reverse. We had a pig from New Zealand, who got his snout into all manner of places, sheep, a goat, a rather bullying turkey, and a couple of ducks, the drake being particularly amorous - with the other duck and not the turkey!
It was with some relief for the children in my group that eventually we went inside the Hall to do some painting of animals for the collage, the theme of which was creation. Dolphins were the preferred animal, although as Rosemary said, where they appeared in the story of Noah was beyond her, but this was a day for poetic licence. Apparently, there were not two but about six dolphins in the ark. At least they would have been in their element in the flood!
Then came the cutting out of rabbits with Pam. This activity was approached with the same inventiveness as with the dolphins. The rabbits ended up with all sorts of colours and the positioning of their tails demanded a great deal of understanding from the adults, but they did enjoy their inspired creations! This was followed by the baking of animal biscuits with Doreen and Rita, whose enthusiasm for their creations was matched by the children's desire to eat them! For the fact they survived intact for the rest of the day was a testament to their self-discipline. Then just before lunch, we had a go at leaf rubbing with Sheila, and the autumn colours, which this year have been so much in evidence in the outside world (apparently due to our wet summer and a cold snap in September), were accompanied by purples, blues and blacks! Such lively imaginations.
During the lunch break, I witnessed a phenomenon – Group singing with Anne. Sadly, this activity has tended to be forgotten in the modern age and it was lovely watching the clear enjoyment on all the young faces. I have never seen Anne at work before in her teaching life, but she had every one of those children joining in the singing about penguins and such like. We were to join Anne again later in the afternoon on planting hyacinths, and again, imaginative decorating came into it when the children, after stuffing the bulb into the pot, then decorated the pot. Finally, the children made masks with Gwyneth and, although this was the last activity in what had been a very busy day, the enjoyment on their faces was palpable.
After all the activities had finished, the children could take all their creations home, which they had been storing in boxes they had been given by Viv for that purpose. There would have been a high chance of some puzzlement once they had got them home, but also plenty of evidence of enjoyment, of the benefits of working together and of learning. This was a practical way of introducing some of the Bible stories to young minds who might not otherwise have got to know them and for this, we all need to thank Viv, not only for a very pleasant and a worthwhile day, but also for all the planning and preparation beforehand, which must have been immense.
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