Early morning, raining, another workday. According to my stereotypes, these words cannot relate with joy, although these were also the characteristics of the LEHUA Day of Joy. Now, let’s take a look from a different perspective!

Zoo, play, laugh, free learning, quality time. Does this sound better?

The Rogers Foundation and the Budapest Zoo organized a Day of Joy on 21.11.2017. The topic was our Erasmus plus project: Learning Humanity from Animals (LEHUA). There were 35 of us, 4 members from the Zoo, 8 from Rogers and 23 from other institutions. There were school psychologists, dog therapists, forest school leaders, professors, university students, environmental educators, and teachers. All of them have a connection with both humans and animals. Furthermore, we had Gábor „Hajti” Hajtman, an EVS volunteer from the Rogers Foundation who helped a lot in the organising process before, during and after.

What did we do?

• collected good practices within the topic of education with animals
• visited the polar bear brothers and the elephant baby
• touched a giant snake, a rat, a bearded dragon, a bunny and an earthworm
• ate delicious sandwiches and snacks
• learned a lot about animals
• we were bats, ants, rhinos in simulation games
• tried out the „box of touch”
• created the laws of the jungle
• established relationships, had discussions and listen to each other

We closed the day with a huge amount of JOY.