In RetkiRatina, children were able to go from one fairy tale to another
Dozens of children enthusiastically point their fingers at a bunny rabbit walking on the Ratina stadium pitch. The last round of activity points for the children's event RetkiRatina is about to begin, and Anne Olsson, the Coordinator of Tampere's Cultural education programme, has just asked the children for the location of the rabbit.
– There! There it is, dozens of children exclaim in unison.
In a rainbow and admiring the perfect spring sunshine, the HLU mascot, Jekku Rabbit, wakes up to the shouts, comes to the children and starts a joyful gymnastics game with them to the beat of music.
After the opening dance warm-up, the groups of children start touring the activity points of the RetkiRatina. Activity points are functional checkpoints set up by Tampere early childhood education and care staff, based on the theme of a particular children's book.
One of the checkpoints will be an activity point for Cultural education officers, based on the children's book Metsä muuttaa (Forest Changes). Katja Hirvonen, Terhi Perttunen, Niina Toppari and Mari Saari have dressed up as forest trees and made a presentation from an extract from the children's book, reflecting on the fate of litter left in the forest and its impact on forest dwellers.
– The children have been very enthusiastic and have given wonderful comments on the performance, say the forest trees with a smile.
Lotta Nurmi and Efe Görgin, both pre-school children, say the same. Lotta and Efe each collected a piece of litter from the forest.
– It was a nice story. You mustn't leave rubbish in the forest, otherwise nature suffers and the animals don't like it, says Lotta.
Lotta and Efe will continue their journey with the other children to the next checkpoints, where they will learn about sustainable futures, mobile early childhood education and care, digital guides and language assistants. Despite the hustle and bustle, the children have the energy to move from one point to the next in the tempting way of a polyurethane platform, running on a running track.
