On any given day an elementary school classroom can easily feel a bit like a zoo, but on Thursday, June 8, things got just a bit more hairy at Cullman County’s Child Development Center when a group of friendly farm animals dropped by the campus’s Summer Learning Camp.

CDC Principal Chris Chambers said the summer program helps to keep the campus in line with Alabama’s Literacy and Numeracy Acts by giving participating students the opportunity to receive additional lessons in reading and math throughout the month of June. He explained how each week bears a different theme which is incorporated into the lessons, which he said helps keeps students interested in the subject matter.

“We’re doing a lot of cross-curricular projects to just try and make learning fun,” Chambers said. “We’ve done all different kinds of arts and crafts and little projects here and there to give the kids a break so they aren’t just sitting at a table all day long.”

This week lessons were centered around the theme of farm animals. The program’s lead instructor, Summer Walker, said the student’s sight words all relate to farm animals, math problems incorporated numbers of livestock and the week’s coloring activities were tailored to the theme as well. Walker said incorporating these types of themes into the curriculum has been incredibly effective, especially at schools catering to special needs students like the CDC.

“The first thing you have to do is meet the student’s needs. Each child has a different learning need, whether that be hands-on learning or visual learning or whatever it may be. With our kids, we have a variety of differentiated learning so what we can do is hit across all of the curriculum by integrating it into one thing,” Walker said.

The week’s cumulative event came on Thursday morning when Terry and Carla Stewart, with Pony Parties by Shady Acres Farms, delivered a handful of their animals to give the students an up-close experience with the subject matter they had been studying all week. The two typically offer the use of their animals for birthday parties and photoshoots — Carla said she is even able to locate a “unicorn” upon request — but after Terry was asked to fill in as Santa Claus at the CDC this past December, a return visit was requested and the couple happily obliged. “Whenever we do something like this, it blesses us more than it does the kids,” Carla said.

The students were able to feed, pet and hug Nicki the alpaca, Goldie the mini horse and even a miniature donkey who a handful of students mistook as one of the co-stars in the Shrek movie franchise. Students were able to enter the enclosures and interact with several of the animals such as the pen containing two flemish bunnies. Abigail Orozco even called in her peers for assistance in getting down from her wheelchair to spend some quality time with a pair of miniature goats.

Julie Tudor wasn’t able to land on a favorite animal of the day and expressed an equal level of enthusiasm for each of the animals. Caden Thomas, however, quickly landed on a “fuzzy” mini-Scottish Highland cow. Despite his affection, Thomas said he was all too aware of the reaction he would get from his parents if he were to request one of his own. “Oh, forget it, because let’s just say my mom would give me an answer most other parents would say…no,” Thomas said.

Even if none of the students are able to convince their families to start a hobby farm of their own, Walker said the most valuable takeaway is the newfound interest and excitement for learning that events such as this creates for children.

“You’ve got to light that fire in them, this right here has led them to want to learn all week. You’ve got to teach in a way that a child can learn. Every one of these kids are different, but they can all learn. You’ve just got to adjust your goals and meet them where they are at,” Walker said.