The four and five year old children at nursery visited the galley shed on Thursday 25th January. Like our previous trip to Mareel in October, travelling on a big bus proved to be very popular once again. The children enjoyed being able to look at their surroundings from a higher vantage point. It was interesting to hear them chat to each other about what they could see.

At the galley shed, the children were split into two groups with Graeme Garrick showing one group around while Gary Smith took the other. The children were very keen to climb inside the galley and enjoyed pretending to be Viking raiders. We also got to see the meeting room upstairs and had the chance to sit in the Guizer Jarl’s chair and hit the wooden gavel to get people’s attention. Many of the children were fascinated by the bear skin that was on display. We also had the opportunity to watch a short video of last year’s procession with several children singing along to the well-known Up-Helly-Aa song.

We spent a very interesting hour at the galley shed and when we returned to the nursery many of the children were eager to draw pictures relating to the visit. Sound Nursery is very fortunate to have a small galley which was given to us a few years ago. The galley is a great resource and has contributed to lots of imaginative role-play throughout the week.

The Junior Jarl, Oran McCulloch and his squad visited the nursery on Up-Helly-Aa day. The children were very excited to see the squad.  We also had a surprise visit from some members of the Senior Jarl Squad later in the week.  The children enjoyed having the chance to try on helmets and hold shields and axes.