Winter fun and learning at Fiordland's Nature Discovery

It has been a while since we have posted anything - so what have we been up to in the last few months.  Winter is a time for learning.

Children developed their sense of Thermoception

 This is the sense of hot and cold and is not just part of our sense of touch, but in fact a separate sense of its own.

Our thermo-receptors detect both hot and cold, letting our bodies adjust to temperature change in our environment. Winter put this sense to the test when children found that if they  waded into the big puddle on a icy morning and got wet feet they got very COLD.  But with some dry socks, plastic bags in their boots, some food and a warm milo, plus quite a few tears they were back to being a happy.

CAREFUL NOT TO GET YOUR FEET WET NEXT TIME!

They learned about the properties of ice.  How that when it was very thick it could take the weight of a child, but not an adult.  That when the ducks tried to land on it they skidded along - the children hypothesised why that was so.  They learned that the big snowball floated when they rolled it into the big puddle, and again hypothesised why that was so.

 They learned that when it was frosty or it had snowed that the ground was slippery enough for them to sledge down the hills on the real-estate signs.

 But most of all they had FUN!!!  After fun filled mornings it was back to the shed to warm up, sit around the campfire warm up, share food and reflect on the mornings adventures.