We have been looking after our carrots for months, it was exciting to finally be able to pull them up and enjoy them! We ate carrot sticks and dip (also celery sticks but they were not as popular.)
Every child had at least a taste, and some didn’t even open their own snack box, they were enjoying the kinder produce so much.
We made good use of the carrot tops, feeding them to the worms, and the chooks, and using some of them to do an experiment. We hope it will work.
I have wanted a rain gauge for a long time, rain being such a precious commodity and exciting event in our part of the world. This very special rain gauge stand has been made for us by one of our very talented dads, a farmer, one of the multi-talented people who keep our farms going and the food coming to our plates. I love this rain man, the same height as a kinder child, who is holding out his cup in hopes of getting some rain in it – maybe even praying for rain, which we are also very familiar with in the Mallee. Thanks so much to Jolie’s dad!
We don’t bring any tools or toys to bush kinder but Rory brought his own binoculars and kindly shared them with other people so we could all have a look at the itchy caterpillar nest up in the tree. We didn’t know that any caterpillars build a nest !
We celebrated International Mud Day a little early in Ouyen, because of the holidays.
Water and dirt – a fundamental and winning combination, something that children should experience on a regular basis. The freedom and the joy of squelching in mud.
We had a wonderful variety of gumboots – which were nice and clean at the start of the day ……
– and satisfyingly muddy by the end.
We have been digging up some ground to shift our succulents. The ground has been pretty hard so sometimes we need a rest, but the satisfaction of doing things for themselves has kept the children going. (No tap nearby means they had to cart the water.)
This work will mean we can plant our vegies next term. From garden to plate.
Waiting ….
for a leaf slide!
Then help to set it up again
for the next person.
We had a visit from Auntie Colleen to tell us about looking for emu eggs and being safe in the bush.this is always a fascinating visit for the kinder children, as many of them are already familiar with being out in the bush but may not have been shown tracks, nests, or ways to recognise signs in the bush environment. Learning the Barkindji word for emu – gulti- and other words is very empowering – some children weeks later are still referring to emus as gulti. Most of the children were keen to express their new understanding through their art work.
A glowing bunch of glorious golden chrysanthemums invited Rory to paint them. Some focussed moments – connecting with the beauty of nature.
At last we are getting close to planting our flower garden – and we have been thinking with the children about what we could have in our garden. With the discovery of a dung beetle in the horse manure last week, Kai thought that we should have a dung beetle to make good soil – the one we had has disappeared so we hope it’s gone back into the manure to chomp away a bit more. The children’s plans ranged from flowers – poppies, sunflowers, rosemary as well as lots of colors – to ants and birds. Let’s hope we see all those in our garden!
Keeping the Reggio maxim in mind that the environment is the third teacher, I used grape vine leaves to drape over the painting easels last week and this week. An invitation to notice and use the beautiful autumn leaves in some art. What would be the response? None! It seemed that the children’s own ideas for paintings were stronger than anything suggested by the leaves, in fact it seemed as if they didn’t notice them at all last week, and we didn’t bring them especially to their attention – it was an experiment. Their busy painting of everything BUT leaves made me think. The Reggio concept of ” environment” is a complex one, as learning itself is of course.
But on Thursday, Eliza made an accidental discovery. She painted near a leaf that was hanging down over her paper, so near that she went over the leaf. And she made a discovery, a leaf shape in her painting! Then she applied paint to the leaf and got the opposite effect, a leaf print.
Was Eliza’s noticing also sparked by the fact that she had also spent time using leaves, sticks, flowers and so on to make a leaf creature in its home? That here was a possibility to elaborate on the use of the leaves? Showing some of the other children inspired them to do some leaf printing as well. This involved looking closely at the leaves to pick the one they wanted and to apply the paint, and then to press the leaf firmly onto the paper. Making choices about the colours and placement of the leaves made this art process as individual as each child who participated.
Using the leaves gave the children another connection with the natural world , not necessarily something that will be articulated tomorrow, but hopefully contributing to a greater enjoyment of and valuing of the physical world around them.