Exploring nature and natural concepts

I was at a consult today and was asked by an educator about introducing and extending natural concepts in and out of the classroom. There is a wealth of information about how to introduce nature to preschool and school age children to be found on the internet. Specifically I find a lot on social networking sites like Pinterest. Green Grubs Garden Club

is New Zealand based page that has heaps of resources, specifically items created by educators that can be purchased at their store on Teachers pay Teachers and additional pages and links that they curate.

Later in the day I came across another Sydney based business Gecko Toys that blew me away with its range of natural resources for indoors and outdoors. I love their range of Gnomes/Forest people,

Fairy Houses and also their extensive range of accessories



and Anamalz. I was considering buying the Either the Australian Animals or Dino pack series to decorate the dashboard of the car.

 I am also happy to see that they distribute the TWIGZ range of childrens gardening gear. Aside from the specifically child sized Montessori Services range they are some of the more robust and evenly priced tools I have come across in my travels.

So, a few ideas there that can, if utilised properly, be extended into a complete nature philosophy      

Newest project for 2014 - Banksia Cottage CCC

 Banksia Cottage CCC,

Macquarie University, North Ryde,
 Sydney, New South Wales

Construction: J M Landscapes

From the Macquarie University Website

' Banksia Cottage was established by a committee of dedicated staff members of Macquarie University who needed childcare services on campus. Led by Jean Joss they lobbied the University and successfully began building the Centre in 1992.

The Centre opened its doors on Monday, February 22, 1993 as the Macquarie University Child Care Centre at Banksia Cottage.   It was licensed for 60 children and gave priority to families of University staff.  Professor Jack Bassett, Deputy Vice Chancellor, was appointed to oversee the governing Banksia Board.

In 1995, due to the increasing demand for Banksia's services, the University agreed to extend the Centre from 3 playrooms to five.

Banksia Cottage now comes under the management of Campus Life and is open to University staff and students. It retains the community spirit that it has always operated with and continues to provide high quality education and care to the University community.'

The major challenges in this design was to restructure both playspaces levels to provide a clear direct and safe pathway from top to bottom, maintain clear supervisory sight lines, integrate existing foliage and space that had previously been used for retaining into the overall design and to incorporate play and small group areas.

0-2 YO playspace, After, 2014.

0-2 YO playspace, After, 2014.

0-2 YO playspace, After, 2014

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0-2 YO playspace, After, 2014.

0-2 YO playspace, Before, 2013

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 0-2 YO playspace, After, 2014.

0-2 YO playspace, After, 2014.

0-2 YO playspace, Before, 2013.

0-2 YO playspace, Before, 2013. 

 0-2 YO playspace, Before, 2013.

 0-2 YO playspace, After, 2014.

2-5 YO playspace, Before, 2013.

2-5 YO playspace, Before, 2013.

2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

2-5 YO playspace, Before, 2013.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

2-5 YO playspace, Before, 2013.

2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

2-5 YO playspace, Before, 2013.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.
One of the things that I like about how the new playspace is being used and one of the things that continues to surprise and delight me, is when children are able to adopt and care for individual plants. The markers in the garden are the names of the children who are caring for the plants. If you want to do something similar at your centre you don't necessarily need a new playspace, you can download free plant adoption certificates here, here, here, or here and plant name markers here.   

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

2-5 YO playspace, Before, 2013.

 2-5 YO playspace, Before, 2013.

 2-5 YO playspace, Before, 2013.

2-5 YO playspace, Before, 2013.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.
Some spectacular weaving on the new multipurpose frame.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

An elevated water channel cascading down to the dry creek bed & sandpit.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

2-5 YO playspace, Before, 2013.

2-5 YO playspace, Before, 2013.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

2-5 YO playspace, Before, 2013.

2-5 YO playspace, Before, 2013.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.

 2-5 YO playspace, After, 2014.