
At Skippy’s we are embracing time in the outdoors with a series of Nature Play Days, the first of which was in June at Mt Archer National Park attended by the Kindy children from both Frenchville and Gracemere centres.
Nature play is fundamental to a full and healthy childhood. It promotes health benefits, including cognitive, social and emotional development, and it builds resilience and creativity as well. Experiences in nature as a child also leads to environmental awareness and stewardship later in life.
Today, we went on the Skywalk and discussed the points we could see like the Fitzroy River, Stanwell Power House, brown grass areas compared to the green grass areas. We read the names of the different Aboriginal people displayed on the walk and talked about the different areas they come from. We discussed the machinery we saw and talked about what they are doing on the mountain.
During our walk we talked about living and non-living things and what sort of living creatures we might find on the mountain. We all kept our eye out for living things and found some Ants, Kookaburras, Magpie's, and a Stick Insect that we investigated more closely. We collected items from nature that we found along the way and when we got back to the Centre each group discussed the items they had collected and why they chose them. During lunch we had a visit from some very friendly Kookaburra's and Magpie's.

After lunch we used up some energy running and rolling up and down the grass hill enjoying the beautiful sunshine and fresh air.
Our Nature Play day met the Early Years Learning Framework Outcomes including:
2.2 Children respond to diversity with respect
2.4 Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment
4.1 Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity
4.2 Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating
4.3 Children transfer and adapt what they have learned from one context to another
4.4 Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, and natural and processed materials
We look forward to doing it all again in a different nature location in July!