Fiordland Kids Making cubbies

The original cubbie in 2015

Most children have the desire to find themselves small child-sized spaces to hide in, a place to retreat to ,be with friends, snuggle down and  share secrets and tell jokes.

This desire and children’s survival instinct in nature comes to the fore as our children automatically make cubbies, where nature provides all the building materials, the fallen branches the sheets of bark the pine needles. The children work co-operatively together and build upon these structures week after week. 

Today was no exception; one of our cubbies that the children have used over the last three years in “pine cone world” had come to the end of its life.  Jenny discussed with the children what to do about it and upon looking at the structure discovered that many of the branches were becoming rotten and unsafe. The structure was taken down carefully and it was decided to make a new one nearby.

Mrs Shaw Archie, Finn, Oscar and Freija went to the jumping horses and got some of the smaller macrocarpa logs that had been felled.  Then she discovered a manuka tree with a big brushy head that had been felled to make way for the new cycle track, which would be great for the walls so armed with saws, Archie, Finn, Ben, Oscar and Charles sawed through the trunk and dragged them back to the building site. 

All the children collected pine needles to make the new floor nice and soft. We had a discussion and everyone thought that we could weave bark and cabbage tree leaves through the existing fence at the back of the cubbie.  But alas we ran out of time ……..

The Wednesday group hope that the Friday and Monday groups will add more so that we have a warm place to play in the winter.

(By Mrs Shaw April 6th)

 

 

 

Cubby Started on April 6th

 

 

This week the Wednesday group worked hard and finished the cubby with Mrs Shaw. They used handfuls of pine needles to insulate the roof. It was great to see what all of their hard work and innovation created. Now we have a nice warm cubby to shelter in over winter.

 



Cubby finished April 11th