Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy (Psalm 96:11-12 NIV)
What can we learn from our park and how can we care for God’s creation?
The Pre-Primary Blue students used both of these wonder statements to explore what they could find out about their local community.
In Term 3, we headed off to Mills Park for three separate learning experiences. Although many of the children had already been before, they were able to discover the park’s beauty in a whole new way with a fresh perspective.
During the first visitation, we familiarised ourselves with our surroundings and mapped certain areas of the park, including the nature playground, spiderweb, carpark, gardens, and the flying fox. We then collected nature treasures such as flowers, rocks, leaves, and bark in paper bags, which we later used to create our own nature collages.
During the second visitation, we showed off our gross motor skills by participating in various rotational activities around the park. We played soccer on the oval, raced up the spiderweb as quickly as we could, and completed an obstacle course on the playground, as well as other fun and active games.
During our final visitation, we invited families to join us for a teddy bear picnic where we had plenty of yummy food, fellowship, and free play.
Various Biblical concepts emerged from these experiences as we learnt that God is the master planner and creator of all of the trees, plants, rocks, dirt, and animals at Mills Park and that it is therefore, wonderful, beautiful and perfectly made. We discovered how to take care of God’s creation by being gentle and allowing growing and living things to thrive, just like the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve lived.
As you can see from the photos, we had the most wonderful time together and learned so much from these experiences!
