Down in the Pines

Another great day at Nature Discovery, down in the pines we climbed trees, made a swing, found huhu grubs and big weta's that jumped everywhere! The soil was nice and dry, just right for digging and sliding on. We found blackberries that weren't quite ripe and made a group discussion to keep an eye on them so we can all have a tasty treat when they are ready. Looking at the huhu grubs we had lots of questions and can't wait to investigate these back at Kindy. The insect book was well used to identify every little bug we found. Can't wait for next week!

Fun in Fiordland

Wednesday 15th February 2012

We had another great day at Nature Discovery, the children decided to go to the Gnuff's house area to play and work. on the way we played 'Hide and Seek' in the long grass.

When we got to the Gnuff house we added to the cubby that they started a couple of weeks ago using the logs that we found on the ground.

With help from Tony, our parent help, we made a seesaw using the logs.

We had lunch in the Gnuff House using rocks and logs as seats.

Chelsea's Story:

"We made a seesaw. We used 4 sticks. One stick on the top to rock on. It was fun cos it just was. We are eating lunch at the hut. We sat on sticks and rocks."

Lukas's Story:

"Bouncing on the bouncer. We made it out of logs. Three logs on the ground and put the long log on top of the 3 logs. We builded a hut and we took a photo. We are eating lunch in the Gnuff house. I sat on a log. We were running down the big hills and we played hide and seek in the long grass."

Summer is here in Fiordland

Wednesday 30th November

Summer has finally arrived, the sun was out and it was warm. The birds were chirping and we discovered that the trees had new, soft leaves. We had fun rolling down Bunny Hole Hill, playing leap frog over sticks that we had found on the ground. We walked through the Spooky Trail and then to the Bouncy Trees, bouncing on the branches and writing our names with pine cones.

Kaylee's Story:

"The new leaves were light green but they weren't dark green because they were new leaves. Dark green leaves were old leaves.

We went through the Spooky Trail, we saw the ferns were rolled up. Some were brown, they weren't open and weren't very good."

Nature writing in Fiordland

How can we write our name at Nature Discovery without pen, pencil and paper? We came up with some very creative answers to this question, one of our mums even got into the spirit of things and wrote mum with pine cones. Nate and Harry had fun nailing bark and leaves onto an old fence post they found. Reyce enjoyed testing out the new binoculars and even spotted a bird!

Spring in Fiordland

Today at Nature Discovery Spring was certainly in the air. Isabella and Georgia found a very small egg on the ground " and actually it was very nice it was a nice green colour - I know what came out of it - there was a yolk and a baby bird - I think it might be a thrush egg." said Georgia
"A baby bird was inside it and hatched out of it - and the baby bird eats yolk inside the egg "They have to peck on the egg all night because the egg is so strong, and when they start to get bigger in the egg and then it hatches and then comes out the baby bird". said Georgia
T"hen they have to learn to fly." said Isabella

Whisper Jet lands in Te Anau

Today the Nature Discovery children went to the Te Anau airport to see the first whisper jet land. They got to see the Fire Brigade hose it in water for a warm Southland welcome. The two highlights of the trip were the ride in the Trip and Tramps van and the helicopter pilot letting them go on his big helicopter.
Ben said, "The fire engines sprayed water on the jet plane to welcome it back. They put the ladder down and the door opened. The helicopter was big but I couldn't hear a thing with the ear muffs on my ears."
Callum said, "I liked watching the door open and the people come out. It was fun on the helicopter."

Snow in Fiordland

We were lucky at Nature Discovery today there was still a lot of snow lying around to have lots of sledging fun. Arthur was very speedy and we all got a little laugh at Mia trying to pull Hunter up the slope.