Junior Landcare, Tales, Stories and Winter Solstice Lanterns

There are some new volunteer mums helping out with our school's Junior Landcare program with lots of ideas and enthusiasm.  Last week I just came and helped out with Landcare rather than having to coordinate the activities,  it was lovely. This week I'm having a week off. So good to know it is valued, and that others will help to keep it going if I step back.

First there was a story from one of our wonderful local story tellers. She told an African tale, but made it local by including the Pobblebonk frog, the theme of the story was that everything is connected. I am amazed how much Kate can put to memory, she weaved a wonderful tale and had the children mesmerised.

Then the classes split into two groups.

One group went on a nature walk and talked about deciduous plants and what was happening this time of year in the garden.

The second group made winter solstice lanterns.

Students chose a few Autumn leaves

They stuck these onto recycled glass jars with PVA, the less crunchy ones were best.

Some kids didn't like the feel of the glue and struggled with keeping their leaves on, so having a couple of parent helpers was definitely handy. It was a great problem solving activity.

After the leaves were stuck down tissue paper was placed over the whole jar and also glued with PVA.  The jars will wait in our ecoshed until the evening of the Winter Solstice when we will have a bonfire to celebrate.

They look much prettier lit up.

Last year we made these CD flowers, finally we got around to putting them up. First they were spray painted and the children had fun etching designs into them with nails. Finally they were glued together with liquid nails. They send beautiful rainbows out when the sun hits them.

It is proving to be the most magical Autumn. 

Winter Solstice and Junior Landcare

The winter solstice is rapidly approaching. We are celebrating at school with a bonfire, stories, wood fired pizzas and soup, and a lantern parade. During Junior Landcare we have been making lanterns and stick stars.  Some lanterns have been made by decorating jars with transparent coloured paper and some have been made using tissue paper and balloons.  The balloons layers could have been a little thicker and have required some extra masking tape to help strengthen them.

Last week we fired up the oven to cook some pizzas for the grade 3s and 4s, they really love cooking, even if they have to wait a while for their pizza. It's so good to have something warm to eat on a cold day.  We can only fit three pizzas in the wood fired oven at a time, so its a little slow going.  

 The vegie patch had a big tidy up and is slowly being filled with winter crops - broccoli, cauliflower, peas, leeks, onions, garlic, lettuce and spinach.

Looking forward to seeing all the excited faces brave the cold on Friday night, hopefully the rain will hold off!

  

One of the teachers commented these stick stars were very Blair Witch Project. They were a great exercise in knotting and each star looked very different depending on the size and type of sticks used.  I wanted some to hang up around the school for decoration but had a hard time convincing the children to leave them behind, they were very proud of their creations.