Learning stories for Secret Garden Preschoolers
Fence Building - We have been painting large bugs for our driveway fence this
week.
It has been a special project,
because it has required real paint and
real tools for an activity with a real purpose.
We have been encouraging our children to becomeactively
involved in creating, and caring for, our childcare environment.
This fosters a strong sense of belonging for
the children within our childcare community.
Placing these pieces of art on our driveway fence also allows us to
share our work with the wider community.
Each bug was created by a team of childrenworking together whichprovided many
opportunities to practice social skills, such as
-negotiation,
-communication, and
-turn-taking,
as the children designed and then decorated their bug.
We also had to practice patience,and
perseverance as we had to wait for the paint to dry between coats.
Weare very excited with the success of this project – we
think the bugs look spectacular on our fence!
The children are very proud of their art, and have been inspired to wonder what else they can do.Watch this space...
Our First Pea - Today we found the first snow pea growing in our garden! Isabelle and Romy found it while looking at the flowers in the butterfly garden.
We decided to eat it right then and there! When we opened the pod, we found three peas inside, so the girls took one each, and offered the third one to Ryan. They then decided to taste the pod as well, so that was carefully broken into three too.
The verdict was ‘delicious’! Fortunately we have lots more pea plants growing in our tyre gardens, so we will be able to share lots more peas with our friends soon. We can’t wait to sample our other vegetables now...
At Secret Garden, we provide meaningful activities which offer rich experiences with nature to encourage each child’s emergent scientific thinking, their sense of wonder, and their enthusiasm for finding solutions to challenges they find along the way.
Throughout our environment, children are invited to:
- investigate,
- make predictions,
- test their ideas and theories,
- share their thoughts, feelings and
- consider outcomes to problem solving events
Interaction with nature helps children to develop their scientific thinking, which in turn helps provides a solid foundation for understanding the world around them. There are no ‘rules’ guiding how nature and natural resources should be used, therefore play becomes open-ended, and involves a lot more spontaneous and creative exploration.
