Look Up!

What a fun day of making and playing today with record numbers - 17 kids!

The theme today was 'Look Up' - thinking about what is above us. We started with reading the 'I Spy in the Sky' book by Edward Gibbs and many people were good at identifying the different birds from the clues in the text.

Time to practise looking up - we went for a short walk through the forest path and spent time looking into the trees. The flame tree flowers are blossoming and we found a tui singing strongly at the top of one tree. The leaves and smaller branches swayed and shook in the breeze, which led us to think how the wind moves other things.....

Like kites! Back to base where we made our own kites with A4 paper, string, a kebab stick, tape and strip cut from a plastic bag.

Then down to the beach to fly the kites, play, explore in the low tide and have lunch.


So many discoveries! Caves, crabs, shells, bugs, pipes, branches, clay and puddles.... and the best bit was how well our kites could fly!

It was a slow walk back up the hill to base for the last 45 minutes - we were tired out!

'Blown Away' by Rob Biddulph was a fun story for the afternoon as we thought about how wind power is used, not only for kites, but sails, windmills and kite surfing. I shared how I sail in my kayak with an umbrella for a sail - this picture is to prove it. (Me coming back from Waiheke Island one day.)

We finished the afternoon with some singing, learning the 'In the Jungle' song and singing it like mountain gorillas, sleepy lions and swooping birds.


Ideas for home:

- Look up in your garden. What do you notice? A fun activity is to lie down under a tree when the sun is not straight over you and spend time watching the sky through the branches. Notice the clouds, movement of the wind, leaves falling or rustling. Are there birds or bugs that you can see? Nests? You might want to draw what you discover or write about it. Personally, I just love lying down, looking, making the clouds into animals in my imagination and just relaxing.

- experiment with dropping different items from a height to see how aerodynamic they are - not things that can break though! Try different leaves or cut and fold paper to experiment. What things stay in the air for longer? Do any spin? What factors make many items drop quickly to the ground?

- Look up how to make different kinds of kites and try making one!

- What else uses wind power? Could you try to make something?