Kornmehl

Terry Aizen – Director of Kornmehl

Bush School

~ Excerpt from a Day Book by Justine Robertson

The benefits of nature play are well documented. But what is nature play and how is it different to outdoor play?

“Nature play is where children engage in unstructured play outdoors using the natural elements that exist there eg. logs, trees, leaves, sticks and stones, rather than man-made resources. Children lead their own play, choose how they want to play and what they want to play with. It’s full of imagination, curiosity, and creativity.

“Outdoor play and nature play both occur outside, the difference is that outdoor play can incorporate play equipment and man-made play toys and objects.”

For most of us, our fondest play memories from our childhood are often about play in nature. Memories of playing in the dirt and making mud pies, camping, climbing trees, throwing stones in creeks are some common themes for many.

As children we often don’t realise how important that time was for our development and wellbeing. But, looking back as adults, we realise the impact this may have had on our lives.

When we started our Bush School Program, we had the knowledge and understanding that nature play helps to provide an environment for a child to develop in so many domains – physical health, socio-emotional development, development of all the senses and mental health. Nature not only heals our children, but it can build confidence, emotional resilience and is beneficial for their overall wellbeing.

We also wanted to create and provide a play experience outside on a regular basis, that not only educated the children about where their curiosity may take them, but also fed into a deeper connection to our natural environment. We know that empathy with and love of nature grows out of children’s regular contact with the natural world. Hands-on, informal, self-initiated exploration and discovery in local, familiar environments are often described as the best ways to engage and inspire children and cultivate a sense of wonder too.

Our visits this term have been surrounded by colours of red, orange, yellow and brown, quiet, and peaceful with splashes of crunch. We always start off each visit with an Acknowledgement to Country. The children noticed all the large brown leaves they were sitting on and each picked up five leaves and found great joy in sharing their observation of them crunching. The children delighted in throwing handfuls of leaves into the air and watching them flutter back down to the ground.

There was discussion about this being a special time of the year where we see all these beautiful Autumn leaves and how some of them are brown and crunchy.

The Dolphins made promises to their bush classroom:

Hudson: Don’t take the sticks off the trees, only on the land.
Oscar: Keep the leaves and the trees.
Noam: Cover the ground so the creatures in the dirt will be safe.
Ethan: When we leave our holes, we have to patch it so somebody else can dig it up.

We had a small group of Botanists who were sitting with Susan looking for worms. However, this also became an experience in roots and learning about how plants evolve and grow and how digging around the roots and not pulling them out whist looking for the worms was one way to care for our earth.

Pieces of nature such as sticks and leaves inspired creativity, sound making, instruments and decorations.

How very fortunate we are to have Susan Sweller come to our Bush School visits. She is a wealth of knowledge and information which she so openly shares with us. Her passion for nature and the environment is inspiring to us all.

Eva Gerber, Ziggy’s grandmother, joined us last week at Bush School and commented:

Bush School. What a blast!!! An earwig… I’d never seen one. This goes to show we can all learn something new. Susan was a great instructor and the children and I learned all about how pine seeds fly and seed in the ground to form new trees and how worms are hermaphrodites and how fungi are all around us…. And much more. Shabbat in nature – a delight!!!! Thank you for the opportunity to join in the fun.

Burger Centre visit

The Starfish and Dolphins visited the Burger Centre on Tuesday and Thursday respectively, to sing for the elderly visitors. It was so lovely to connect with our elderly community and share a special time together. We find this opportunity to be a very worthwhile and meaningful experience, not only for the children, but also for the educators, the elderly, and the whole community at the Burger Centre.

Taking the children out into the wider community has many advantages for both parties. It’s important for the children to realise that they can make such a big difference in someone’s life, by bringing them joy and happiness through the power of song and music. The presence of a young person can brighten up anyone’s day. Teaching the children to have empathy and an emotional connection to elderly members of our community builds their confidence, resilience, as well as feelings of worth and positivity.

We were very proud of the children and how comfortable they were in this new environment. They clearly enjoyed the experience and felt confident to speak into the microphone to introduce the songs. They sang, danced, and moved in their own free-spirited ways, with smiles all over their faces. The elderly visitors joined in too, which highlighted the joy, creative and loving spirit that the children shared with them.

After singing, the children had the opportunity to meet some of the elderly. We had practised some questions to ask them such as “What is your name?”, “What was your favourite song?” and how to introduce themselves.

And then a small morning tea was very much welcomed.

During the walk back to Pre-school, the children shared their experience and also what they noticed in the surrounding environment:

Raphael: It’s a tunnel of trees, as we walked along the footpath with the trees overhanging above us.
Zac: This is a yellow footpath as we walked with yellow leaves under our footsteps.