In Bush Gardens, Becky and I are taking the juniors into the bush, in an attempt to let kids be kids. The games, talk, questions, and observations in this new environment will stimulate their senses, and provide them with confidence.

We are providing our students with creative and regular physical activities and getting them to identify enjoyable experiences in the bush. A huge part of our teaching will be to look at safe practices in a range of contexts and identify people who can help.

The desired result would be for students to create their own game and activity in this environment and discuss them. To achieve this they will have to cooperate with others, being both a listener and contributor.

1,2,3, where are you?

Today we learnt the game '1,2,3, where are you?' The finder had to count to 30 while everyone else ran off to hide. Then the finder shouted out "1,2,3, where are you?" And everyone had to shout back "1,2,3, I'm over here!", which gave the finder clues as to where to start searching. Once someone was  found, they helped the finder to search, every so often calling out "1,2,3, where are you?" To work out where abouts the last of the hiders were. 

What a lot of sticks!

As we all gathered together after '1,2,3, where are you?', many of the children started picking up sticks from the ground around where they were sitting, quietly looking at them, playing with them...letting their imaginations flow. They were given the opportunity to bring their sticks back to school, and a great variety returned with us, from tiny twigs to a huge branch that Cole was determined to pull home with him. Later on the term we will focus on 'what can we do with a stick?' and stretch our imaginations even further.