Meet A Creature offers animal handling workshops across the East Midlands, Yorkshire and The Humber, and in other areas of the UK by arrangement. Our events are led by experienced Rangers working to the highest standards of health and safety and animal welfare.

Let us share our enthusiasm with your pupils or guests who will be able to enjoy our collection of friendly creatures, all of which are used to being handled by children. We have a range of reptiles, amphibians, insects and mammals, and each session is tailored to the requirements of our clients - so there is no need to meet our creepy crawlies or snakes if you chose not to!

Our Rangers each have an enhanced CRB certificate and full liability insurance, and copies of these documents are available on request. Full risk assessments also available.

"The children really enjoyed the session, especially handling the animals. We would certainly book Meet A Creature again." 
-  Intake Primary School, Sheffield.

"All of the students were able to access the workshop which was extremely helpful and the staff were really impressed with the pitch of the workshop."
- Talbot Specialist School, Sheffield.

School Workshops

At Meet A Creature we believe in working with each school to offer bespoke presentations to fit perfectly with teachers' requirements. Just contact us to discuss your requirements - or select from our range of inspiring natural science workshops, listed below. These are specifically designed to complement the Foundation, KS 1 & 2 curriculum.

We also offer tailored presentations for special needs pupils and for KS 3 & 4 - please contact us for details.

As part of our fully flexible service, the duration and number of sessions can be adapted as required - for instance a 3-hour half day could be include three 55 min sessions or six 25 min sessions.

Pre Schools

We offer a simple, sensory presentation which inspires children to ask questions about the natural world. Participants are introduced to our range of unusual creatures and we chat about what they are called and how they live.

Foundation Stage

1. See It – Feel It:  A hands-on experience for under fives who are introduced to some exciting creatures with scales, fur or shells.

2. How does it move? We focus on movement, with the chance to see at first-hand how a tortoise plods and a snake slithers, and try to move in the same way.

3. Caring for animals: We introduce a range of creatures and talk, in simple terms, about why it is important to be kind to animals and protect the places where they live.
Keystages 1 & 2
 

Keystages 1 & 2

These workshops will be presented at an appropriate level for each age group

1. Life Processes/ Humans and Other Animals: An exciting hands-on session in which children discover the answers to a range of questions about living things.

2. Living things and their environments (adaptation): We introduce pupils to an exciting range of creatures and help them to discover at first hand how different species are adapted to their environments.

3. Variation and classification and movement: A memorable way to help pupils understand the differences between mammals, reptiles, insects and amphibians – by seeing and touching examples of each group.

4. Minibeasts: How would it feel to have your skeleton on the outside? Can you count the millipede’s legs? Pupils just love this hands-on session in which they meet some amazing insects.

5. Reward for the Class: A chance for the children to relax  and have a fun (and educational)  session experiencing a  hands on session with the creatures as a special reward – maybe an end of term treat!

6. Feed Chains and Food Webs: We introduce a range of creatures and help pupils to understand where they sit within the feed chain, and how different species depend upon each other.

7. Why We Should Recycle? We see how animals often recycle materials in their own environment, and introduce pupils to a range of natural recyclers, from reptiles to mini-beasts.

8. Rainforest: We introduce some amazing creatures which can be found in the rainforest, including a colour-changing chameleon and a giant African millipede which can grow up to 1,000 legs!

9. The Effect of Litter: Through the exciting experience of handling a range of creatures, we inspire pupils to consider the damaging effect of dropping litter on the natural environment.

10. Nocturnal: Learn about what makes a creature nocturnal – how do they adapt to living and hunting in the dark – How do they detect / find food.

Stuck Into Science Workshops

Workshop subjects include, amongst others, forces, materials, gases and light, electricity. Please contact us to discuss your requirements. (Stuck Into Science workshops do not include animal-handling.)

Meet A Creature has launched a new range of exciting school workshops which challenge KS1 & 2 pupils to discover scientific principles for themselves by carrying out their own experiments.

These fun, hands-on sessions are designed to get children thinking about the possibilities which science presents - and perhaps inspire a future Stephen Hawking or Brian Cox!

Working in small teams under the guidance of our experienced presenters, pupils will investigate, record and analyse their results in an age-appropriate format. Each workshop includes a feedback session where pupils  are encouraged to answer the all important questions: Why? What? How?