Spring in Fiordland

Wednesday 17th October 2012

What I beautiful day, Spring has sprung.

We had 5 new children to Nature Discovery so the other children thought that we should show them the Gnuff's house. We made some discoveries on the way.
Ella said, " We found flowers on the tree.  There were leaves on there.  The flower was pink when they was closed.  When they was open they was white."

 On the way we stopped at the Crab Apple Tree to see if there were any changes.  And there were!!!  It was covered in blossoms.
Kaira said, " I just saw a flower and I smelled it. It smelled nice.  The tree had flowers and leaves.  It didn't have anything when we saw it the first time."

 Nina said, "It was all flowery.  It had lots of red buds and nice leaves.  Some of the leaves in the stormy days had fallen off."

 The climbing trees had new leaves too.  One tree had red stalks and new green leaves starting to sprout.
Kaira said, " The climbing tree, it had buds.  They are like flowers, they are little buds for now.  The old leaves have fallen off and now they are growing new leaves."

 After lunch back at the shed, we played in the mud puddles by the dirt hills.
Tom said, "I was playing in the mud with Grace. It was like a mud bath, pigs play in mud. I slipped on the mud, I got my hand dirty.  Grace printed the mud on the board and the tree.  I liked the mud cos it was lovely to get dirty in the mud."

 Grace decided to put hand prints on the tree and soon everyone joined in to decorate the tree.  She then decorated the ramp with hand prints.

 Nina said, "The mud was really dirty.  I played sticking the trees with mud because it was fun."

 Kaira said, "We were putting hand prints on the tree cos we used the mud.  We put our hand in it and then we put it on the tree like 'high fives'.  I liked playing in the mud cos I got dirty.  I put mud on my face cos I wanted to, to make me look funny and make me laugh."

 Tom said, "Grace printed mud on the tree."
Ella said, "I putted mud on the tree.  I putted my hands in the mud.  I feeled like I was touching the tree.  I like playing in the mud cos I really like MUD."

Another great day.  The look of joy on the children's faces and discovery and inventiveness while playing in the mud is priceless.  Such a fabulous medium to enjoy!!!

Relaxation and fun outdoors style.

Nature Discovery, what a great way to start the new term.  The children all enjoyed slowing down and chilling around the fire, I guess holidays can be really busy!  Imagination and creativity was running strong.  Talia created a beautiful picture using natures resources that she found, Chris built his own ladder so he could reach the top of the branch to build and hammer the new shelter.  Jorja used the old rotten log to practice her balancing skills and Amber and her friends made a walking track around the trees.  One of our favourite spots, the rotten log was still underwater and it was fun throwing the rocks and stones in and watching the big splashes and ripples they made.  It was funny when Talia's Dad pretended to throw her in and her gumboot really did fall in.  The challenge was how to get her boot out, thank goodness for big long fishing sticks!

Mud & Puddles in Fiordland

Monday 17th September 2012

It had been and raining most of the weekend and today was also wet.  There were many water puddles and mud puddles around the park.
Not far from the car park there was a large puddle of water which one of the children said was "little Lake Henry".  We all thought that it would be great fun to lay in it but decided that we would go back to the car park early at the end of the day to play in it.

After lunch, when the sun was trying to make an appearance we played in the mud puddles near the shed.  It was great fun and soon our yellow and orange jackets were the colour of mud.

Ollie said, "I jumped in the mud, it splashed Judy, didn't it. I got mud all over me cos I was lying down in the mud."

Jazmine said, "I liked playing in the mud, we splashed and we done tricks when we go in the mud."

We went back to the car park early so we could play in the large puddle.  We thought it would be a great way to wash all the mud off our wet weather gear and it DID!!!!.

We had a great time!!!!

Talia siad, "I went in the puddle. I lay-ed down in the puddle to get my hair wet.  It was cold water.  The puddle was up to my knees.  I got all wet.  I did splashed and run in the puddle.  I hope it's still there so I can play in it again."

Ollie said, "I'm in a lake.  I am splashing and sat down.  It was fun because I liked it, I just LIKED it.  If you splash it, it all comes up."

Jazmine said, "I went in the 'lake' and splashed and we tried to swim in the 'lake'.  We just splashed in the 'lake' because I just ly-ed down in the water because I just love it.  Ollie and me, because we are cheeky rascals.  The water was cold but it was fun. I LOVED it."

It was a perfect ending to a great day.  Even though the weather was wet, we still had another fabulous day at Nature Discovery.