Frosty Fiordland

Wednesday 5th June 2013


We woke up to a big frost this morning. The grass was white and there were ice puddles everywhere.

Jenny discovered a big ice puddle just over the rise from the car park so we decided to investigate it before heading up to the shed.

The ice puddle was covered in patterns and lines, it looked beautiful.

Gabrialla said, "We found ice on the water."

Libby said, "The grass was in the ice."

Maki said, "When it's cold, the water gets into ice on the top."

We poked the ice with sticks and some bubbles appeared.  Then the bubbles moved under the ice and made circle patterns under the ice.

Maki, Gabrialla and Libby said,
"When we smashed the ice it made bubbles.  The bubbles moved under the ice.  We could see them under the ice."

Everyone had fun breaking the ice.  When we picked up the pieces of ice, we could see through them.

Bailey said, "I was splashing the ice, it melted and bubbles was under the water. The bubbles was grey, I was trying to catch the grey bubbles."

Maki said, "Bailey is hitting the ice cos she wants to make a hole.  We wanted to find out what was under the ice.  Water was under the ice."

After having morning tea and a milo at the shed we decided to go find a hill that we could slide down on our sled.

On the way we discovered another big ice puddle below Bunny Hole Hill.  When we tried to break the ice it was much harder than the last ice puddle. When we picked up pieces of the broken ice, it was much thicker.

Dylan said, "I am breaking the ice with a stick.  The ice was cold.  The grass is white because there was ice."

Bunny Hole Hill was very frosty and white.  We tried the sled on the hill and it worked a treat.


Gabrialla, " I was sledding on the white grass.  The grass was white because it was cold and frosty.  It was fun.  It was fast, it was exciting."


Maki said, "They are sledding on the board. They went slow and they went by themselves because it was sliding on the frost."

 Teagan was next to have a turn.  This hill was great to go down because the frost made the sled slide down without anyone needing to pull it.



Bailey said, "Teagan was sliding down on the sled, down the mountain."

On top of Bunny Hole Hill, the sun was shining so we made long shadows on the grass.


Libby said, "We are making shadows from the sun.  The shadows were funny and long."

Maki said, "When we moved, the shadow gets different."

Libby said, "We was making shadows."

Maki said, "We were standing in Jenny's shadow.  We flapped our arms like a steering wheel and a bird."

We tried an experiment to see what would happen if we stood behind each other and moved our arms.  We made an interesting shadow on the ground which was very long indeed.

Maki said, " Our shadow was flying and it was fun and it made it longer than the other shadows.  We need sun to make shadows"

Bailey said, "The shadows look like a apple tree."


Even though it was very cold, we had a great day, discovering ice puddles and experimenting with making shadows on the ground.

M

Pre-schoolers connect with nature EVAN HARDING

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/8761132/Pre-schoolers-connect-with-nature

BARRY HARCOURT/ Fairfax NZ

WORLD OF DISCOVERY: Fiordland Kindergarten head teacher Claire Maley-Shaw, in Ivon Wilson Park at Te Anau, shows off her new Nature Discovery book to pre-schoolers who have become little guardians of the land.

A Te Anau woman who has introduced dozens of the town's pre-schoolers to the world of insects, mud and tree-climbing in recent years says they are now more connected to nature.

She knows this because she helped research the benefits the children got from their outdoor excursions, and this weekend her results are revealed in a book she has written.

Fiordland Kindergarten head teacher Claire Maley-Shaw runs the kindergarten's nature discovery programme in which 4-year-olds are taken to Ivon Wilson Park once a week to experience the outdoors.

The programme started in 2009 and was one of the first of its kind in New Zealand, she said.

"We wanted to see what the effects of taking children out into nature would have on their development. Over three years we did research and looked at the benefits."

Fiordland Kindergarten teachers Tracey Braven and Judy Sandilands helped Mrs Maley-Shaw do research for the book, called Nature Discovery, which will be launched at Ivon Wilson Park on Saturday.

"We have found the children are far more connected to nature than they were before," she said.

The weekly excursions to Ivon Wilson Park had seen the pre-schoolers jump in puddles, play in mud, snow and leaves, climb trees, cook damper, study insects and more, she said.

"The good thing is they get to feel the seasons . . . The children talk about wanting to go outside to feel the wind on their faces. They look at a toadstool in awe, whereas other children would squash it; if they catch an insect they have to let it go. They have become real little guardians of the land."

The children generally preferred the wilder parts of the park so they could go on adventures, she said.

Mrs Maley-Shaw said she was raised on a farm at Greenhills, near Bluff, and her earliest memories were being on the land overlooking Foveaux Strait.

"I have always had an affinity with the land and feel that it's really important for children to be in touch with nature."

The programme had been good for the children's physical development and they had forged close friendships, while their families and the community had got involved, she said.

"It's not so much about teaching the children about nature, it's about them being in nature. It's fun."