Our Environment and Bush Excursions
Space to wonder, explore and grow
At Norman Park Kindy, the environment is more than the place where learning happens.
It is part of the learning.
Our extensive, green and natural grounds provide children with space to move, explore, create, investigate, take appropriate risks and connect with the living world around them.
As a one-group kindergarten, with only twenty-five children attending at a time, children have the freedom to spread out across our indoor and outdoor environments, find spaces for energetic play or quiet moments, and become deeply involved in their ideas.
Our environment changes with the children, the seasons and the possibilities that emerge each day.
Learning with nature
Our extensive natural grounds are an important part of our curriculum — not simply a place children visit for outdoor play.
Children have opportunities to dig, climb, build, garden, investigate, get wet and muddy, observe living things and experience the changing seasons and weather.
Our Nature Kindergarten Program extends this learning beyond our gates through excursions into neighbouring bush and parkland.
Spending sustained time in natural environments creates opportunities for curiosity, physical challenge, scientific thinking, creativity and connection. It also supports children to develop an understanding that they are part of the natural world and have a role in caring for it.
Our relationship with place also supports our continuing connection with Country and our respect for the Jagera people, past and present.
Nature as a teacher
Children experience the natural world with their whole bodies.
They dig in earth, notice insects, climb, balance, build, garden, collect, create, observe, get muddy, feel the wind and rain, notice changes in plants and encounter the unexpected.
These experiences cannot always be planned — and that is part of their value.
A fallen branch might become the beginning of a construction. Rain may transform familiar spaces and create entirely new possibilities for play. An insect might inspire days of investigation. Something discovered in the garden can generate questions that educators and children explore together.
We value these spontaneous encounters because they invite children to notice, wonder, question and care.
We play outside in all weather
There is something particularly wonderful about a rainy day at Norman Park Kindy.
Rather than seeing weather as something that prevents outdoor play, we recognise the different possibilities each season and type of weather offers.
Children may splash through puddles, investigate where water travels, create channels and dams, discover how familiar materials behave differently when wet or simply experience the joy of rain on their bodies.
With appropriate clothing and consideration of conditions and safety, outdoor play continues throughout the year.
Childhood can be wonderfully messy.
We encourage families to expect muddy clothes, wet shoes, pockets containing treasures and plenty of evidence of a day well spent.
Beyond our gate — Bush Excursions
Our relationship with nature extends beyond the kindergarten grounds.
Through our regular Bush Excursions, children venture into neighbouring bush and parkland, giving them opportunities to develop an ongoing relationship with familiar natural places.
Returning to these places over time is important.
Children begin to notice change.
Which plants are flowering?
Where has the water gone?
What creatures can we hear?
What has changed since our last visit?
What should we leave where we found it?
These aren't simply excursions away from kindy. They are opportunities for children to build knowledge, confidence, independence and a sense of connection with place.