Rabbits, 22 Nov

Exploration and discovery were the overarching themes of class this week. We ventured over to Princes Island Park, using compasses and maps to navigate our way there. Learning to locate oneself in compass orientations and developing the skills for map reading. Our class of rabbits are eager explorers and travel well as a cohesive group, so we wanted to foster this interest by using our time to go on some adventures further afield, building up to more challenging and dynamic hikes in the future.

The opportunity to examine unique wildlife on the journey captured the imagination and stimulated some interesting hypotheses about the thoughts of particular animals and the reasons for their behaviour, especially birds (geese and pigeons). We identified footprints in the snow and discussed the river and its characteristics in Winter... we enjoyed throwing snowballs and sticks in the river to explore flow rate and experiment with the temperature of the water and its effect on snow.

The great sliding hills on Princes Island made for some fabulous snow fun and the new trees to explore and climb, this time with the aid of ropes, were some of the physical challenges of our day. The snow was the ideal material for creative projects, big and small, from making enormous snowballs to mini snow houses with leaves as cosy rugs.

The love of storytelling was evident in the group as they took it upon themselves to tell each other stories on the walk and even planning storytelling breaks on the way when they plotted out our journey. We love seeing the confidence oral storytelling gives the children and the interpersonal skills they develop by encouraging each other's stories and listening intently to each other without interruption. It is a brilliant and engaging opportunity for all and a wonderful habit to develop for hiking journeys.