Tuesday, May 6, 2014

30x30 Nature Challenge

All the StrongStart centres in our district are participating in the David Suzuki Foundation 30x30 Nature Challenge.  Every day this month we will spend a minimum of 30 minutes outdoors.  The following is what our centre did our first two days.

Day 1 we did some gardening.
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We move our spuds out of the green house into the fresh air and sunshine. 
                       Then gave them a good watering.
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We worked in our Planting-a-Promise garden picking all the dead blossoms from the stems.  This will allow the bulb to store more energy for next year.
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When we arrived at our flower bed we noticed this hole dug in the ground.  Who would have dug it?  Is it still in there?  The children were quick to respond that a rabbit dug it.  We do have lots of rabbits that live all around the school and neighbourhood.  They are probably right.

Day 2
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                        We went on a listening walk. 
Before heading out I read the book called “The Listening Walk” by Paul Showers.
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It’s a great book to kick off the walk.  The girl in the story describes what she hears from her dad’s shoes going ‘dop dup’ to the leaves whispering and the bees buzzing. 
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We practiced making ‘deer ears’ before going out.  If you cup your hands behind your ears it will help the noise funnel in better.  If you switch your hands and they are blocking your ears from the front, noise will be muffled.  Give it a try when you’re talking and you will notice the difference.
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After walking quietly through the woods, although some children had a difficult time of staying quiet, we took sometime to draw what we heard.  Birds was the common response.  Although a few heard something scary.  They couldn’t see the noise and when one child drew, her picture was a monster and a bird that she labeled ‘scared – bird’.

We’ll be practicing more quiet, listening times in nature again.