lifelike lizards

admin — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 14:01:03 +0000

You can buy some wonderful props quite inexpensively if you look around.

These gorgeous lizards are available from toy shops and look very lifelike.

We like to use them both indoors and outdoors …

as they are extremely solid.

We love to create natural play spaces for them …

with lots of earthy and sensory materials.

They really are irresistible …

and a good size …

with delightful features …

encouraging lots of imaginative play.

Resulting in wonderful play based learning!

hush garden – phase 2 begins

admin — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:00:25 +0000

We have been dreaming of a dry creek bed in our Hush Garden for a very long time!

Jenny's children off to the creek

Then last month, Jenny over at “Let the children Play“, posted about the creek in the bush beside her kindergarten which she ventures into at times with the children, where they spend enjoyable hours playing in the water.

Jenny's children playing with their trucks in the creek

Check it out here, it’s wonderful! That post was all the inspiration we needed to stop thinking about our plans of a dry creek bed and to start putting our thoughts into action!

On the last day of term Sherry and the children from Purple Group cleared as much tanbark as they could from the Hush Garden in order to present us with a blank canvas to work with as the ground cover was looking pretty sad due to the fact the tanbark breaks down so quickly. Don’t you just love the brooms at work!!! At this point in time we weren’t seriously thinking of the creek idea but rather we wanted to purchase some more native plants to jazz the place up a bit and perhaps include a winding gravel path or two. We just knew it was time to begin ‘phase two’ of the garden improvement.

Of course we still had the beautiful large rocks and delightful weeping flowering gum tree and small native plants positioned in the center, but the pavers were lifted and the umbrella removed along with some logs and a couple of native grass plants which we planned on transplanting somewhere else.

dry creek bed

After reading Jenny’s post on the creek running through the beautiful Australian bush beside her kinder, and catching up with each other in the holidays we discussed exactly what it is we wanted to do and decided that … “ we wanted Jenny’s creek“. We could do this! Okay we wouldn’t have a real creek, but we could put our dry creek bed project into action if we put our minds to it … so put our minds to it we did!

Tom's water pump

At this stage Donna hadn’t told Sherry about the water pump idea she had picked up from Teacher Tom (although she had mentioned it to Tom who had posted some water pump maintenance tips on his blog for her) …but that would wait for now. First things first … baby steps, baby steps and all that jazz!!

We spent a morning in the holidays sourcing plants and trees, rocks and pebbles and set to work on the ground work of our ‘dry creek bed’.

We positioned heavy rocks which the children would not be able to help us with to create a raised garden bed for the new gum trees. We then ordered, from our local garden supplier, a delivery of Lilydale toppings for the paths and Tuscan screenings to line the creek bed along with a selection of river rocks, and marked out a plan for the creek bed.

We decided where the native grasses should be placed for best effect, taking into account that we wanted them to look like they had grown beside the creek naturally, but at the same time we didn’t want them to obstruct the children’s play. Then we used the mosaic pavers to mark out the ‘flow’ of the creek.

The three dwarf gum trees we purchased to go in the new raised garden bed would compliment the existing weeping gum beautifully and grow to create shade and interest at the top end of the garden.

We aren’t very good at following plans on paper so we really just stepped things out and decided that if it looked right … and felt right … then we’d go with it. When we stood back and had a look. We knew it would work … so we were ready to begin.

Naturally we want the children involved as much as possible but knowing that the first week back at kinder was scheduled to be wet, (yes we know you can’t trust the weather bureau these days, but we had to be prepared) and the tanbark Sherry had raked away had exposed copious amounts of dirt, we made an executive decision to put down a layer of Lilydale toppings before the children arrived in order to prevent too much mud being stirred up by what we knew would be the feet of very eager helpers.

dry creek bed

It was then that Jenny posted this wonderful article on her site. We couldn’t believe our luck or her timing.

dry creek bed

Looking at the pictures of dry creek beds she had put up has reinforced in our minds that this project is right on target to be successful.

Now the children have returned from holidays … the real fun can begin!

To be continued …

Dry creek bed images are from “Tessa Rose Playspace and Landscape Designs“

perfect pet play!

admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:24:52 +0000

We were trawling the discount shops again …

when we found these really cute mice …

and cats …

and dogs.

We popped them out with some wooden building blocks …

and assorted fabrics,

along with logs and rocks.

The children had such fun with them mixing and matching our old and newer style wooden blocks into the play.

Once again the top of the block trolley was used, which as we’ve said many times before is a perfect platform for play.

It also means the children can access extra blocks and supplies.

You really don’t need fancy equipment to make play fun, just children and their wonderful imaginations!

Irresistible Ideas for play based learning » rocks

lifelike lizards

hush garden – phase 2 begins

perfect pet play!