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. 

Light in the Dark

Did you know if you take the flesh out of an orange or grapefruit and leave the centre pith behind, you can fill it with vegetable oil and use the pith as a wick (be warned the pith takes a bit of lighting) and make a wonderful orange candle.


Remarkably the orange candle will burn for hours, even more remarkably you can refill it with oil and burn it again. If you are ever caught without candles but have citrus, you now know how to make a very effective lantern.  It actually burns quite clean and bright. An excellent school holiday project.

 This ruby grapefruit gave off a wonderful red glow and the oil preserved the skin for weeks.


I recently made orange lanterns for our school's winter solstice night.  Unfortunately, I forgot the camera to take pictures on the night. I also was so busy I didn't have time to be patient and get them all lit.  Don't you hate that! Fortunately, Christine, at Slow Living Essentials remembered hers, check out our schools wonderful winter solstice night here. It was a huge amount of work, but lots of fun on the night. We cancelled holding the event on the actual night of the solstice as it was raining and miserable, but rescheduled it for the following week.


I was a little busy on the day of the solstice event, so I'm not surprised something was forgotten. I was whizzing up the pumpkin soup we had made with the school kids from the school grown pumpkins, making mulled wine, gathering up our solar lights to help decorate the shed, getting together cups, the oranges and our ice luminaries. And caring for a three year old. The solstice night is a parent driven event, and I love it that our school is generous enough to let us run wild with our ideas, and free minded enough to let us have a bonfire and candle lanterns. There was story telling, and drumming, and a parade, and wood fired pizzas, and mulled wine, and soup, and hot chocolate, and a lot of smiling faces on a night when most of us would like to be bunkered down indoors with a blanket and a cup of tea.


The little Bowerbird had a great time helping me make ice luminaries and they really sparkled when lit up. It is quite fun watching them gradually turn into a puddle as well. First we gathered seeds, leaves and flowers from the garden. So lucky that our winter garden still holds a myriad of flowers.

We found a pretty cake tin and popped a jar inside.  We then filled the tin with water, which makes the jar float. Some rocks were placed in the jar to weigh it down.

A paintbrush helped poke the flowers into place. This activity kept the little one occupied for ages. Busy making it look just so.  She loved making them so much we ended up creating three. The luminaries were fully frozen overnight. To remove the luminary from the tin just dip it in some luke warm water. Finally, take out the rocks, add a candle, and light the luminary.
  

As I said I forgot the camera so no pictures of the final result, but to get an idea of how they look when lit, and to see where I got the idea from, visit Shivaya Naturals. She has made some beautiful sun catchers I'm also tempted to make. If only we had some sun to catch. Soooo cold here today, feeling every draught in our old house tonight. I'm hoping we might get some snow this week, it definitely feels chilly enough.

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.