A full busload of children visited from Newfield kindergarten on another “wild weather day”. But the kindy kids were well equipped in gumboots and coats, so the weather was tolerable.
As it was such a large group, we split into two groups with both groups doing an outdoor and an indoor activity. Chris took one group around the bush track using the sensory scavenger hunt cards. Donna the duck was again a star – entertaining the children at the pond, but other birds such as tui and fantails and herons were also spotted as were ducklings quickly hiding away. Spring flowering is at its best with native clematis, scented kohuhu, lemonwood and fuchsia flowers fully out. Meanwhile in the education centre Bronwyn oversaw a range of activities from potting up, to leaf matching. Then teachers Marie and Tessa took on some activities and the wetland tunnel became the stage for a possum sing-a-long. Marie also used the pests on the tree to tell stories about pests as the children had been learning all about them at Kindy. Newfield kindy are one of the most well organised and prepared groups to come to the nursery and they made the most of their visit to the property – well done all concerned.
Posted: 13 November 2015
Fifteen children and ten adults visited the nursery for a morning’s fun and education. They were particularly interested in vegetable growing, worm farming and nature so all of those activities were undertaken. A bush walk using the sensory scavenger hunt cards was lead by Chris and Bronwyn – no ducks appeared this time! Colours, scents, sharp, smooth, sticky objects were found by the children on their way around the tracks. The plant labels and stoat trap boxes being added attractions!
Inside the Nature Centre the wetland tunnel with its hidden doors was a major attraction, the butterfly and weta floor jigsaws, music and birds also captivated the children.
Then another excursion outside to look at the vegetable and fruit gardens, pick up eggs from the chickens, and have a look inside the worm farm where hundreds of worms were happily munching away on vegetable scraps. Another highlight was seeing very young starling chicks in the nest box near the Nature Centre. The anxious mother bird sneaking back into the nest hole with worms once the children had retreated back inside the building! See a full description of activities from the Playcentre themselves.
Posted: 13 November 2015
Wild spring weather, hardy souls and some amazing art were the subjects of an art workshop weekend held recently in Otatara. Renowned New Zealand conservation artist Jo Ogier, from Christchurch, came to give a two day art workshop at the Southland Community Nursery’s Education Centre. The workshop, entitled “Nature Journaling and Field sketching” was soon booked up by budding artists and despite inclement weather some amazing art was produced.
Jo’s easy relaxed style of teaching was inspiring to watch as she demonstrated various techniques and mediums and then encouraged everyone to have a go at the different exercises. Due to the weather, most of day one was spent inside the education centre, with a brief foray outside to collect leaf and flower specimens from around the pond and bush at Rances. Those specimens then provided the subjects for study and drawing with Jo breaking each subject down into basic shapes and giving numerous tips which everyone appreciated.
Day two involved many more excursions outside and the real “field sketching” took place – landscapes, birds, clouds, feathers, more plants and getting a real sense of closely observing and recording nature for your own journal. Most people said they would continue their journal for different purposes – recording daily events in the garden, for tramping trips, a family diary etc
One participant said “I absolutely loved it. As always Jo is a talented competent teacher and fun to be with. We all learnt a lot, even the more experienced artists among the group learnt a new technique or medium. The venue is brilliant. It is such a great asset, so comfortable, practical and with all that nature just on the doorstep!”.
Posted: 9 November 2015
On Tuesday 20th October the Windsor Brownie Group came to the Community Nursery to study for their “One with nature Badge”. They were particularly keen to learn about the nursery and its relation to conservation and how they could help. Chris started with a brief explanation of how the nursery worked and then followed up with a potting up session. Around 80 cabbage tree seedling were potted up.
Next a trip around the pond using the “sensory scavenger hunt” activity cards which encourage using your senses sight, smell, touch to look for interesting things around the pond nature walk. A report back at the end of what had been found showed that the girls had been very actively looking for interesting natural features. The sensory scavenger hunt cards and other activity sheets can be found on the Education section of the website. http://www.southlandcommunitynursery.org.nz/education-centre/activities/
Posted: 28 October 2015
On Monday 19th October Limehills Schoolchildren with teacher Kathy Turnbull braved some terrible weather to undertake nature studies at the Education Centre. Luckily we had Mark Oster to encourage them outside, while Chris and Bronwyn lead the potting up activities undercover in the Education Centre.
But first the children made a model of their school nature area – including live trees, tracks, buildings, and birds, insects, lizards, so they could explain to Chris exactly what their school area was like and Chris could then recommend the right native plants for their situation.
The children were also interested in the “community” aspect of the nursery as they had been studying “communities” – when asked what a community was one student said “good people make good communities”. Chris also introduced the idea of “volunteers” and “bartering” time in exchange for plants and one of the jobs for the class was potting up cabbage trees in exchange for taking plants from the nursery back to school to plant in the nature area.
Our grateful thanks to Mark Oster for making a trip into the gale force winds an “enjoyable” experience for students (and meaning that Bronwyn and I didn’t have to go outside the building!).
Posted: 22 October 2015
