When we visited The Avenue Children’s Centre and Kindergarten, we loved hearing how at times they took a small group of children out to the shops to buy the food for their meals.

As we had Sherry’s grandchildren over for lunch (and a play) this week, we thought they might enjoy not only making their own lunches, but choosing what they wanted to eat and shop for it as well.

The first stop was to the deli to select …

 and purchase, all on their own, some cold meat.

Then we headed off to the green grocer for their choice of fruit.

and last but not least, the bakery for fresh warm bread …

 and treats for later.

Back home the children cut their bread into circle with a plastic cup …

to match the shape of their round meat … Their choice!

They buttered their bread …

added the round meat …

and tomato sauce of course …

and taadaa! round sandwiches.

They popped their cantaloupe into little silicon patty pans using special sword toothpicks …

and ate up every bite!

It always tastes so good when you choose and make it yourself!

Each year, for about the last ten  …

Highvale Preschool has run one of their kinder sessions at night, by torch light.

To start off the evening the children and staff rock up around 5.00pm in their p’j's and bring along their dinner to eat.

After dinner the lights go off and the children are treated to a puppet show.

It’s titled Dreamer In Space and is presented by Dream Puppets.

To the delightful oooh’s and aaaah’s of the children it is all performed in the dark, under ‘black light’.

The fluorescent colours are ‘out of this world’!

Following the puppet show, Julie the puppeteer, showed the children some of the puppets up close.

After the show it was time for ice-creams …

before heading off to enjoy some kindergarten activities …

ALL by torchlight!

This is lovely tradition at Highvale Preschool which they carry out on the last day of term two each year.

What a wonderful experience it was for the staff and children …

with everybody having the most exciting time!

With our mid year school holidays on the horizon we thought we’d head out to the Melbourne Zoo to check it out for a holiday family excursion.

There was heaps of parking, being a Wednesday which is great as it is usually packed at the weekend. You can also catch the train to Royal Park as the station is only metres away from the back entrance.

The first thing we did was stop for morning tea, an essential thing to do which we have discovered with experience over the years. In fact we seemed to be eating a lot all day!!

The bigger children received a map each and we tried our best to follow their desires.  There is just so much to see. we started off with the giant tortoises – they have been there as long as we can both remember (and in Sherry’s case that is quite a long time!).

Then the reptile house beckoned  …

oh the fascination of snakes, lizards, crocodiles, tortoises and … …. … you name it we saw it!

When we emerged from there we could hear the lions roaring really loudly and quickly ventured over there to see what was going on.

By the time we got there they looked peaceful enough  …

with their faces angelically pointed into the warm morning sun.

From then on we just followed our noses (and the maps as best as we could) …

and saw the  seals and fairy penguins …

elephants …

tigers …

butterflies …

peacocks …

and platypus, which unusually was sitting on top of a rock having a good scratch – what a funny sight that was! (Sorry too dark for photos!)

We saw the gorillas …

pygmy hippopotamus …

meerkats …

and pelicans.

The children ran …

and balanced …

and rolled on the grass …

and hid an awful lot (well the beautiful gardens were hard to resist!).

We had a lovely day and staggered home exhausted without even seeing all there is on offer.

We’ll just have to go back!

Memberships for the Melborne Zoo, Healesville Sanctuary and Werribee Open Range Zoo are very reasonable and after July 1st children are free on weekends, public and state school holidays.

From next year children will receive complimentary memberships for any day of the year!

We thought that we would take advantage of the last dying days of sunshine before a damp and dark Winter settled in on us …

and took ourselves and some young friends on a Melbourne icon – The Puffing Billy.

Puffing Billy is a restored steam train based at Belgrave in the Dandenong Ranges and travels up to Emerald Lake and back several times a day.  It is a good idea to check the timetable as it does vary from month to month.

It was midweek and not holiday time when we went, so we foolishly thought we would have no trouble parking!!! Our advice is to get there early no matter what day it is.

The train is very popular excursion with tourists, school and kindergarten groups and was chock-a-block this day with eager travellers! You can always browse in the souvenir shop or grab a coffee if you have time to spare.

We found a carriage which would accomodate us and a stroller. By the way, the carriage at the end is for passengers with disabilities, so has more space and wider doors. If it is free, it is a good one if you have heaps of ‘stuff’ and one of those extra wide strollers. BUT check with the station master first!

The bigger children quickly settled themselves on the window ledge so they could dangle their feet out, shootin’ the breeze, so to speak.

It was a relatively slow trip to Emerald Lake as it goes uphill a lot of the way …

heaps of time to take in the stunning sights of the Aussie bush …

country cottages with smoke lazily drifting from their chimneys …

and farm animals making the most of the warm sun on their backs.

We hopped out at Lakeside Station (grabbed a coffee from the kiosk, as we needed it by then – five year old boys are delightful but totally full of energy!) …

and wandered up to the playgrounds …

which had BBQ’s as well.

As Emerald Lake is a very popular excursion destination with schools and kindergarten groups …

you can actually book and reserve one of the park’s rotundas for your party to use.

The children went off to play while we got the sausages sizzling. They were close enough that we could keep an eye on them at the same time.

We managed to pin them down long enough to scoff down a sausage and sauce wrapped in bread before they were off again.

After lunch we headed off for a stroll around the park’s beautiful grounds.

As a treat we each had an icecream from the cafe then wandered down to the lake …

to look at the ducks …

splashing and fishing.

The children were keen to go on the paddleboats, but it just wasn’t practical for us this day.

We have been on them before and they are a lot of fun.

On the way back up to the station the boys discovered the most gorgeous Autumn leaves piled up under the trees …

and they had a ball throwing them around.

We had difficulty eventually pulling them away so we could catch the last train back.

We didn’t want to be left at the lake with no cars to get us back home!

We had a wonderful day …

and although not a cheap excursion …

children under 4 travel free and discounts are available for pre-booked groups of 20 or more who are travelling both ways.

A trip on Puffing Billy is well worth checking out (in fact an absolute MUST) if you are ever in Melbourne.

Image from http://www.puffingbilly.com.au/

Here’s the perfect song to go with our outing. It’s called “Down By The Station”.

Down by the sta-tion,

early in the morn-ing

See the little Puffing Billies all in a row.

See the engine dri-ver pull the little le-ver,

Chuff chuff, puff, puff, off we go.

We were invited to a make a couple of presentations at the Geelong Kindergarten Teachers’s Conference early in June.

We were so impressed by the excellent organisation – everything ran so smoothly and on time!

In between speakers, the participants had many stalls they could look at and buy products from if they so wished.

One stall was “Roaming Reptiles” which coincidently had been nominated as a great incursion on our post a few weeks ago.

They are a local company from Geelong and not only do shows at events such as the conference and parties, but bring an exciting array of Aussie animals right into your classroom.

Tracey and Daniel were there on the day to help with any inquiries.

They had quite a range of largish reptiles such as Crikey the crocodile …

Licorice the black headed python …

and ‘Kath and Kim’ the children’s pythons.

They had turtles …

yabbies …

bearded dragons, blue tongued lizards and a stumpy tailed lizard.

They also have mini beasts such as the giant cockroaches! They were fascinating and we bravely let them crawl on our hands!

They even had scorpions which …

glow in the dark!

We saw meal worms, crickets and stick insects …

and one of our favourites –  a beautiful green tree frog called Freddo.

What a lot of learning must take place when this group of animals visits your children! You can contact Tracey at snakes@roamingreptiles.com.au or phone her on 0418 227 083.

As parents we took our children on many a trip out to Healesville to visit the Sanctuary, a wonderful place to see our Aussie animals and birds up close.

As kindergarten teachers we had many an excursion there too, but as educators we also had access to their Discovery Centre.

It is an educational program run by qualified teaching staff and is designed for children from preschool up to secondary school.

The day we visited all the children (looking fairly bedraggled due to the persistent drizzle) were wending their way home.

Dianne kindly showed us through the classroom which is specifically designed for preschoolers.

It felt a bit like we were entering a museum or library. It is quite darkish with the Australian bush painted on the walls and  just has that special feeling to it that makes you want to quieten down and whisper to each other …

which probably suits the animals that are in there too!

When the children arrive they are asked to sit on the floor and the Sanctuary teacher chats to them about different aspects of our unique species.

They are allowed to pat mammals such as this delightful ring tailed possum…

reptiles such as Carlton the spotted python …

and this very gorgeous and placid bearded dragon.

After dampening their index fingers they are allowed to gently touch one of the green tree frogs.

There is a big glass container with stick insects for the children to look at.

The Sanctuary has a breeding program for these amazing creatures and sells them to preschools and schools.

There are many other exciting activities for the children to do after their talk with the teacher …

such as checking out the creatures like the owl, goanna, echidna …

platypus …

eagle and

snake skins.

They can also head off to play with puzzles …

do some threading …

hold a puppet show …

enjoy some imaginative play …

or have a close look at the blue tongued lizard.

Dianne took us out the back to see our favourite bird – the tawny frogmouth. She was very receptive to us, all relaxed and fluffy until she spied an eagle swooping around outside.

She immediately stiffened up to look like a branch of a tree!

We left her to it as Dianne said she she would stay like that for quite a while.

Our experience is that the children love this program and they learn heaps from it.

It is really worthwhile doing if you are considering going on an excursion to Healesville Sanctuary anyway, but you will need to book.

Go to www.zoo.org.au and follow the link.

Over the years we tended to bring hatching chickens from Living Eggs into our centre.

When we visited Highvale Preschool we saw they had ducklings from Hatch on the Run.

At Holy Trinity, as we mentioned recently, they had rabbits! A very large and fluffy mum called Veronica …

with her three beautiful little babies.

They don’t have them all the time …

rather they hire them from Animals on the move for a short time to enjoy and learn from, then send them back like the chickens and ducklings.  They came to the kinder when the babies (kittens) were a week old.

They were in a large, airy, clean cage with plenty of room to move around and cosy spots to hide in.

They were very quiet and tame and were obviously used to gentle handling.

In front of the rabbits was a drawing table where the children could jot down their rabbit impressions, and how gorgeous were they?

We love the variety that children come up with when left to do their own thing.

We particularly enjoyed seeing the birds’ eye view of the rabbits with their little round bodies and ears flat against their backs.

This is a wonderful way for children to learn to look after pets and all that goes with it without the year round hassle that having livestock in a centre can ceate.

You can find information about Living Eggs, Hatch on the run and Animals on the move through the Incursion/Excursion link on our page Another Irresistible Idea!

On Friday night we had a call for help from one of our facebook followers named Tania, who asked us … “I was wondering if anyone out there has some different or unusual ideas for incursions or excursions for 4-5 year olds, in Melbourne?”

As usual, and not at all surprising, the response was amazing, and people came up with so many wonderful ideas that we thought we’d share these ideas and links with you.

So here is the list the people of Melbourne came up with …

VISITORS:

::: Animals on the move

::: Australian Wildlife Lectures

::: Bubble Media

::: Butterfly Adventures

::: Concept Kids Science

::: Dove Puppets

::: Dream Puppets

::: Investigating Butterflies – Melbourne Zoo

::: Hatch on the run

::: Jack and Molly

::: Kids Music Company

::: King Marong

::: Life Spirals – Hospital Familiarisation Program

::: Lightening Creek Band

::: Living Eggs

::: Melbourne Museum – Fossils

::: Paul Jamieson the Music Man

::: Reptile Encounters

::: Responsible Pet Ownership Program

::: Roaming Reptiles

::: Seaweed Sally

::: Scott Ryan and Chester Bear

::: The Drama Toolbox

::: The Wiggly Worm Lady

::: Wild Action

EXCURSIONS:

::: Ceres Environmental Park

::: Double Decker London Bus

::: Kew Traffic School

::: Melbourne Museum

::: Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

::: McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park

::: Scienceworks

::: The Ian Potter Children’s Garden

::: Tinternwood Farm

::: Wombat Bend

Of course if you are not in Melbourne and have a great incursion/excursion you would like to share please feel free to leave us a comment and we’ll be sure to tell people about it!

Recently we came across this terrific box of card games!

Well, not card games exactly but game instructions printed onto cards.

There are 100 game ideas in the packet.

Some we are familiar with.

Some we are reminded of.

And some are new to us.

But all look like really good fun!

After our visit last week with Katie from Wild Action Animals …

Sherry created a book …

which she to read to the children featuring all the animals …

and new information they learnt about them.

She does this every year following this or similar incursions …

as it is a great way to reinforce what the children have learnt.

It’s amazing to realise just how much information the children actually take in!

On each page the children were able to provide the information faster than Sherry was able to read it!

It just goes to show how easily a child will absorb things …

when they’re truly interested in a topic!

This book now resides in the children library corner …

where they have access to it whenever they like!