“Dolls!” — and they went over and held them in tight.
A giraffe, a dog, a rabbit, each one picked out.
“Baby,” they called them, and got them up onto their backs in slings, or wrapped them in scarves.
Some fetched the toy food and fed theirs.
Then, still holding on: “Miaow, miaow.” “Woof woof.”
“I'm hungry” — said to a friend, and something handed over, and eaten.
They said which animal they liked, and picked that one out.
One brought a scarf over to be tied on for carrying. Another lay down beside theirs and patted it to sleep.
And one came over with a pull-along string.
“Tie this on it.”
So it went on, and the animal came along behind them on the lead.
One child was putting an animal to bed under their own nap blanket.
So an adult found it a blanket of its own.
Later, outside, the animals had a bath — warm water, not cold.
And afterwards that child hung them out on the drying rack, one at a time, alone.
The paper-brick bath was still there from the day before, and that child went straight over to it.
Magnetic blocks went on as walls, or flat on the floor.
The animals came out of the bath one at a time, got looked at, and went back in. Out, and in.
Then an adult put a fishing toy down beside it, and after that it was about pulling the string to lift an animal out.
It mostly didn't work. That made no difference.
The animals and the masks went out together.
One child ran over and fetched a carrier — this one on my back, please. Then walked it round the room, there and back.
The masks went on. Some laughed underneath them and did the animal.
One didn't want a mask at all, and walked an animal along the train track instead, and then sat down with the animal book.
The blocks went down as a path, and as stepping stones, to be walked along.
Some walked it. Some wanted a hand. One wouldn't get on it at all.
So that one rolled a car along the top of it instead. Then walked an animal along it, held in one hand, the whole way across.
That was the part they wanted, and they went back to it.
Told they'd be going outside soon: “Are we taking the animals again today?”
They had taken them the time before.
“Do you want to bring them?”
“Yes.”
So a basket each, and whichever animal they wanted in it.
Outside, they talked to them. And they kept turning the animals round in the basket so the faces pointed up and out — so it could see where they were going.
The dog had come out of hospital, so it needed looking after properly.
A cone went round its neck so the wound wouldn't get worse. Then into the carrier, gently, and carried about.
“Shhh.” It was asleep in there.
“I'm hungry!” — so food got laid out for it.
Cold, then — so a scarf went over it.
They put food down in front of the animals.
“Rabbits eat carrots.”
“Tigers eat meat.”
One child gathered a lot of animals into one place and started building round them with bricks.
“What are you making?”
“The place where the animals eat.”
Green bricks in a heap: “That's grass.” The rabbit and the giraffe went next to it. The meat went in front of the tiger and the lion.
“Tigers and lions eat meat.”
And going round what everyone had put out: “This one's the rabbit's.” “This one's the crocodile's”
One child brought a horse over. “This one's a horse.”
“Horses like carrots.”
“I saw one on Jeju.”
They carried the animals round the room. Some built walls up out of blocks and put animals inside — a zoo.
Somebody came over with a pig. “Look at this.”
“What's the pig doing?”
“Pig's eating.” And moved it to show.
“Shall we eat too?”
“The giraffe — that's the one I like!” And picked it up and held it.
“You like giraffes.”
“Yes! But I like the snake as well.” And picked that up too.
Then three of them, calling over: “Look at this!”
They were sitting on the big tiger, all three of them, moving it along.
“How did all three of you fit on there?”
“The tiger's really big, so three of us fit.”
“And the three of us go like this and like this” — rocking backwards and forwards — “and that's how it goes forwards.”
“Isn't that hard work, all three together?”
“It's fun because we're doing it together.”
Somebody else found the tent. “There's a tent here as well.”
“There is. And look what's up there.”
“Where?”
Out of the tent to see. An adult pointed at the snake. “Boo!”
“Ah! You made me jump. Did you put the snake up there?”
“No, it was already there.”
“I'll have that snake, then.” And went off — and came back with a monkey instead.
“Take a photo of me and the monkey. In here”