Once again a chilly morning for our frogs group meant the warmth of campfire was a popular spot to sit, chat, reflect on our learning experiences of yesterday and plan lots of new adventures to fill another day. A few parents joined us for a chat this morning, we had another delivery of some wood, and we even had a big brother (who happens to be an early childhood teacher – yay) come and spend a few hours with us…thanks Jason.

Our ‘fire safety officer’ made sure he did several checks on the fire during the day to make sure that it remained a good fire and wasn’t at risk of becoming a bad fire.

Some of the children started their day re-exploring their playground area.  New discoveries were made, such as the fact the hay bale see saw also made a great catapult for the fallen apples!

We discovered some bulbs pushing up through the damp soil right in the middle of the playground, so there was work put into protecting them from being trampled by busy little feet.

Today many of the children showed an interest in the creative experiences that were available for them to explore. Instead of pens and pencils we experimented drawing with charcoal again.

There were beautiful crowns of leaves and flowers to make and wear in our hair.

Fallen apples and  rose hips were fashioned into bird feeders, and much thought put into finding out how to hang them in the ‘perfect’ spot.

Work began on some re-purposed art works for the fairy garden.

A group of children visited the park next door to collect and bring back a large branch to decorate with yarn and fabric.

We sang ‘Koori Woman, Koori Man’ around the campfire together.

Of course there was more cooking on the fire.

The children had bought along vegetables to make a pot of soup on the fire today.  We read stone soup and then there was lots of washing and chopping of the vegetables as well as some collecting of extra ingredients from our kindy garden. The perseverance of some of the children in working out how to cut the pumpkin and seeing that through to delivering it to the fire to be added to the soup was amazing.

There were so many thoughts on how best to cut the pumpkin, but since their preferred option of a chainsaw or axe was not really an option, they went with cleaning up the woodwork saws and using them!

Our chooks and duck were more than happy to help dispose of our veggie scraps.

Rest time under the dappled light of the apple tree was such a peaceful and relaxing time in our busy day.

Carting fresh water from the rainwater tank for our hand washing station, and cleaning up our outdoor kitchen made for a great experience in team work and co-operation.

Sometimes I think our kindy moto should be ‘just add water’, the joy, and rich learning that occurs with the many experiences available that include water are astounding. This afternoon the tap in the digging patch was hooked up to a series of cardboard tubes and the fun began. The majority of the children were totally engaged in exploring the intricacies of designing and building structures to move the water, trying contain the water, trying to stop the water running into the shed, building dams, digging trenches, pouring, making boats, working together, giving and following instructions, listening and responding to ideas and theories of all involved. We ended up with lots of wet, happy children (and staff!) who had been part of an amazing learning experience.

As our day drew to a close, Gen taught us a folk dance

and then we gathered around our campfire one last time to share our soup, some flat bread and sausages and cook marshmallows.

After the last of the children had drifted off, we began to tidy and reset our outdoor learning environment all ready for a very excited bugs group to begin their two days of outdoor kindy tomorrow.

Lee, Gen, Janice, Nic & Kiree