A light drizzle was falling as we arrived at kindy this morning. The ground was damp, the wood was damp and the smell of the gentle rain that had fallen overnight reminded us of how lucky we had been with the weather so far.  The campfire struggled to catch, but as the flames gently dried the timber, they produced a lovely warmth and a steady glow.  The air was still this morning, the smoke drifted through the trees gently rather being blown around as it had been by the breeze on the previous mornings.

Todays group was much larger that the previous two days, and it wasn’t long before the yard was buzzing with excitement as parents and children played together, laughed together, sat around the campfire and chatted or settled their children before heading off.
 

Due to our group structure, todays group had some children who were on their third straight day of outdoor kindy, and then the majority for whom it was their first day.
 

Even the staff structure varied a little today as we had Nell and Kylie join us.  The group size and dynamics made today a very different experience.  There are lots of very active children in this group, lots of children that we know need to run, to climb, to drag the heaviest things they can, and to use the loose parts in many different ways.

Tires were moved around the yard, rolled, pulled, balanced, tipped, climbed on, sat in, and  jumped off.

Witnessing the learning, and first hand experience of so many physics concepts that went with this play was amazing.

Early in the day, Janice and some helpers pulled down our rope climb.

As we reflected over the past few days, we felt that over the past few weeks, the children had mastered what was there, and we decided to reinvent it on the swing frame.  While the children enjoyed morning fruit we set the spiders web up.  They swarmed it as soon as they finished.
 

All through the day, individuals and groups challenged themselves as they explored the properties of the ropes.
Some climbed easily to the top while some preferred a challenge much closer to the ground…
 

It will be fascinating to watch their developing proficiency on this new set up over the next few weeks.

One of the children decided to use some of the tyres and other loose parts to create a digger….

He was a wonderful foreman, and engaged any one he could to help him push, collect, drag all the things he could imagine he might require, and assemble them into his fabulous digger….
 

His creation took centre stage in the yard for the day, with many children joining in various games on and around it.

The installation of our memorial totem pole this week, inspired us to finally take the plunge and have a go at some mosaic ourselves.  The reclaimed piece of concrete gutter that runs down from the water course seemed to Janice like the perfect item for us to mosaic.  We rummaged through the shed and collected a myriad of broken coloured tile pieces, tile adhesive and grout.  Nell helped lead the children and staff to create another wonderful piece of art for our butterfly garden.
 

Hopefully tomorrow it will be grouted and by next week, nestled back into place amonst the plants in the garden.  We can’t wait to see it finished, and to test out how it looks with water cascading down over the beautiful patterned interior.  There are already plans afoot to create a collection of mosaic stepping stones…. including a beautiful green star, and dinosaur footprint .  Maybe tomorrow if the children’s interest and creativity is still sparked we will see our artistic skills extended even further.

We of course had to recreate our Wombat Stew again today.  Complete with all the animals adding their ingredients to the stew, as our dingo – who is very familiar with the story – did an amazing job of helping Lee to narrate the story.

There was some flatbread dough left from yesterday, so the children kneaded and shaped it, and we cooked it to enjoy with our wombat stew.

It was lovely to once again see language and story of wombat stew being transferred to other self directed play scenarios by many of the children…

There was time to enjoy stories…
 

A huge box of rose petals not only provided a sensory extension to the sand play….

but also provided the delightful discovery of many small snails nestled amongst their fragrant petals….

Of course there were discoveries of many other interesting creepy crawlies as well….
 

The woodwork table was bustling with activity, and interestingly produced very little in the way of finished products.  It really was all about the process today, hammering, drilling, and screwing just because they could.

The water course provided lots of enjoyment today….
 

We busted the myth that this outfit was indeed going to keep you dry if you immersed yourself in a puddle of water….

Explored how wet we could get the photographer by throwing various things into the pond to see how different the splashes were…

Waited patiently for saucepans to fill…

And delighted in the feel of the water after we were sprayed by putting a finger over the end of the tap…

Logs became great places to test our our balancing skills….

and were very useful when we needed a stand to set up our drum kit on so we could jam with our mates….

A few children explored creating some music….

Plastic gutters were carefully laid out in exactly the right place and put to use as ramps to make pulling the rickshaw up over the bump in the concrete much easier….

By the look on his face, Id say I was not the only one that doubted how effective this set up was going to be!

Rosies Ice Cream shop was open again today, complete with the addition of delicious cupcakes being baked and home delivered by one of her assistants….

By the time our day was coming to an end, it was actually quite warm. Instead of toasting marshmallows on the fire, we had a little chat to Rose and together decided it would be fun to set up her icecream shop …. with real ice creams!  She worked hard to set it up and decorate it…

announced it open for business….

and then served her excited friends all manner of delicious and exotic flavoured ice creams…

We all had a wonderful day and headed off home with full tummies and sweet sticky smiles on our faces, all ready for our final day tomorrow.

Written by Nic.

*** remember ***  Thanks to everyone visiting our blog for sharing today with us. Please take the time to leave a quick comment on this post. It is a wonderful way for us to record both our families, and the wider communities involvement in, and thoughts about our programme, and a great reflective tool for us as a staff team. Not to mention, arriving at work in the morning and reading your lovely comments puts a huge smile on all of our faces – its a great way to start our day 🙂