Making Leaf Dolls

Today we had a great idea that involved using lots of leafs. Sophie lay on the ground in the shape of a star fish and her friends piled leaves around her body. The end result was a beautiful leaf doll. After the individual ones we decided to make a row of leaf dolls so everyone lay down beside each other holding hands and feet to feet. We ended up with a row of leaf dolls and between each one to every ones surprise was a heart shape. What fun we had today!

The Gnuffs

The Gnuff Family

Grandpa, Grandma, Pa, Ma, Rimu, Rata, Baby Fern.

There has been magical happenings at Nature Discovery, Mrs Shaw wondered if it might be the Gnuffs. She had seen and heard of the Gnuffs before but this was a long time ago. This week when we arrived at the shed there was a note from the Gnuffs. The note welcomed us and then led us on a wonderful treasure hunt, the Gnuffs had left us many clues and taonga to find. During the morning we had a special visitor Mrs Shaw number 2, she remembered the Gnuffs also, and came to tell the story that she had heard from the birds of Fiordland about how they had seen the Gnuffs working their magic within Te Anau again.

The Woody Hollows

At Nature Discovery today we discovered a new area to play in. We have called it the Woody Hollows. Tallulah, her Mum and Caleb made a stone sculpture, Gabbie found a Moth that she looked after for a while then let go. The Woody Hollow had lots of trees, leaves and sticks for us to build and make things with. One of our parents from DOC taught the children how to look for shelter and make arrows to show adults where they are if the get lost. We have started playing a Search and Rescue game practicing these skills and of course our Nature Discovery call. We all enjoyed lighting the fire for the thermette and having our Milo right in the middle of the Woody Hollows, it was like camping.

Charcoal Drawings

October 13th

Today we used the old charcoal from our fire which we put in an ash can at the end of the day.  It was now cold and we wanted to see if we could draw pictures with it.  The pieces were various shapes and sizes.  Some pieces we could draw thin lines like using a pencil and other pieces we rubbed over the paper to create wider and lighter lines or areas.

Shelby used the thin small pieces to draw a helicopter.  We all had fun making patterns on our paper with the charcoal.

It was great to discover that we didn't need to bring pencils and crayons to Nature Discovery to be able to draw - we can just use charcoal instead.

Big Splashes at Nature Discovery

Today at Nature Discovery we made bird feeders.

Caleb said "We spread peanut butter on to a pine cone then we rolled it in bird food and then we hung it up on the tree. I liked making the bird feeders. Shelby's Dad and my Dad helped me, they lifted me up to put it in the tree."

On the way back to the car park we found a big puddle it was too tempting we just had to jump in it. Everybody got really wet and even got water in their Gumboots.

Jacob said "I loved splashing and making other people absolutely wet."

Liam said "I liked splashing and going on my knees in the puddle."

One of the big rocks became a diving board with children jumping off to create bigger splashes. I can't wait for the next Nature Discovery day.

A cold and frosty day at Nature Discovery July 28

Today it was very cold and frosty, we tired to slide down the hill on our bottoms but we couldn't slide down by ourselves so Mrs Shaw pulled us down by our feet. Sophie and Chloe's Dad had a better idea - he got us to hold on to each other and he slid us all together going down backward.

I was so cold we went on a big walk to find some sun, and then walked back to the shed where Hunter was waiting with the fire going. We sat around the fire warmed up and toasted marshmallows.

"I liked toasting the marshmallows on the camp fire" said Chloe

"I liked it when Mrs Shaw pushed me down the mountain it was fun" said Zayla

"Dad was pulling us down the slippery grass, it was tickling my back, it was fun" said Sophie

"I like toasting sausages on the fire, the fire is nice and warm' said Rosebud