Centre Happening: A Friend from the Garden!

Our tamariki are curious little explorers and with this in mind, it is no wonder that they notice and find special things around our play spaces.

A few of our tamariki noticed a special friend in our garden. “I found a snail”, one of our little ones said excitedly as her friends gathered around to take a closer look. The snail moved from the garden onto the ground, but with all the fun activities going on around them, some of our little ones became quite concerned that the poor snail may accidentally get squashed. “How about we move the snail to the table?”, one child suggested and carefully using a leaf, we transported our new friend onto the table. Another little one very caringly picked up one of our big stones so that the snail could move around on it if required.

As our tamariki watched closely, they had discussions about the features of the snail and what they thought snails might eat. To get an even closer look, one of our children went inside and brought out a magnifying glass. “It’s making some shiny stuff” she said, and kindly gave her friends a turn at looking through the magnifying glass. We decided to research why snails make this slime and found out that it helps them to move, especially when they are moving up vertical objects – so they don’t fall!

After a little while, we thought that the snail might be getting hungry and so moved it back to our luscious garden for some lunch!

Experiences like this one provide opportunities for our tamariki to explore and learn more about the living world around them. It also is a great way to teach our little ones to be gentle and kind towards all living things!

I wonder if we will meet our friend from the garden again very soon? 😊