Our garden
Our garden is alive and unique, it is always evolving and never finished. This makes it an exciting space for the children, because with each new day there are new discoveries. In our garden we delight in finding:
- caterpillars
- lady beetles
- worms
- fallen leaves
- flowers
- tadpoles
- a visiting bird.
Environmental sustainability
In our garden, the children are able to make enhanced connections with nature and we promote environmental sustainability:
- worm farms
- recycling
- composting
- growing our own vegetables
- caring for our chickens and frog pond.
We must take the opportunities in the early years to foster intimate, meaningful and positive connections with the natural environment, if we want the next generation to create a sustainable future.
Bush area
We believe that children should have natural places and spaces to play. Our Bush Area provides a "wilder" space that provides opportunities to care for animals, observe native wildlife and insects and have ample natural elements - trees, plants, dirt, sticks.
In our bush area we provide many natural elements; fresh air, water, dirt and fire. In 2014 we introduced our campfire area. After interesting research, careful planning and risk assessment we now have a space were the children can sit and enjoy a campfire with their educators and friends.
We also have a dirt patch in our bush area. This is a popular space for the children to play and dig exploring in the dirt, adding water to make mud and digging to make canals and rivers.
This is why we always pack spare clothes at John Brotchie.
Weather
We believe "there is no such thing as bad weather only bad clothing", we therefore play outside in all weather, all seasons. All weather has different experieces to provide from the heat of summer and playing in the shade and water, cooler autumn days and playing in the leaves that have fallen and winter with the rain, puddles and cooler days.
We encourage families to dress appropriately for the weather. Staff plan for the weather and provide suitable experiences and time spent outside based on weather reports.
