Short Walking Excursions

Short Walking Excursions

Dear Families

We are intending to extend our children’s learning by conducting regular short walking excursions to the communal green area at the south eastern side of Park Beach Plaza.

It is intended that these excursions will be conducted during the morning and may occur on each day of the week-dependent on weather and supervision requirements and regulations.

A permission form and all details of the proposed excursion are included.

We envisage that these excursions will enrich all of the children’s learning but we require families’ permission for the children to participate.

Alternative activities and experiences are always available to children who remain at Pre School.

We believe that some of the benefits of exploring this communal area are that these explorations help to stimulate children’s creativity and imagination. For example pine cones and banksia pods can be figurines in imaginative play, used for imprinting in mud or clay, or currency in a game. Natural objects with open-ended possibilities often encourage children to engage in richer play experiences.

Natural materials have a sensory benefit. They have different textures, sizes, colours and smells. They provide more tactile stimulation to children to help them improve their hand/finger awareness and coordination.  Natural resources are accessible. They can be collected from yards, communal areas and the preschool itself at no cost. The resources are renewable; their creation and disposal has minimal harm to the environment.

Children are learning about nature and to be resourceful.

With the support of interested adults, children are learning about their local environment and strengthening their sense of place.

Our intent is to encourage in children an interest in the diversity, beauty, and joy of natural life and an understanding of the importance of the interrelationship of living things.

Such topics as weather, streams, mountains, rocks, and stars can be included as supporting information within the context of the settings being studied.

We intend to participate in games, explorations, picnics and meditation style activities whilst we are visiting this communal green reserve.

However all children must have covered shoes and socks to be able to attend.

As educators some of the goals we have for the children’s learning are as follows.-

  • to develop respect for and appreciation of all forms of nature
  • to understand the relationships between habitats and humans
  • to learn facts that can be used for thinking and reasoning skills
  • to become observers of the environment
  • to use the senses to learn about the environment
  • to learn about new interests and areas in the child’s immediate environment
  • to ask questions, to explore, to discover, and to have fun
  • to appreciate the beauty found in nature
  • to learn to be cautious about nature when necessary