Flinders Early Learning Centre in Buderim, Queensland | Education

Flinders Early Learning Centre

Locality: Buderim, Queensland

Phone: +61 7 5477 2999

Address: 144 Ballinger Road 4556 Buderim, QLD, Australia

Website: https://www.mfac.edu.au/learning/early-learning

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25.01.2022 Beastie Boys Film Clip Final Take

23.01.2022 Discoverer Daily Journal Thursday 26 November 2020 oday a small group of friends went to the farm, some new friends and some experienced friends. It was exciting to see friends who have previously visited the farm remember the jobs and routines. For example, Lauren noticed that Daffy the ducks bath was dirty. She helped to add clean water with the hose. When we first arrived the friends had lots of news to share with Farmer Jeff. Farmer Jeff also shared a sad story with us. O...Continue reading

23.01.2022 Explorer Daily Journal Monday 7 September 2020 After a beautiful week of sunshine, this morning we had rain to admire and chance to observe the natural environment getting a drink. The opportunity to play under the veranda or inside saw children try new play ideas and collaborate with new friends. With a smaller area to play and explore we heard lots of negotiating through trying new language and modelled language from educators to ensure everyones ideas were incorporated.

23.01.2022 Beastie Boys Film Clip Take 3

22.01.2022 Discoverer Daily Journal Friday 4 September 2020 Throughout our day the children are often faced with experiences that may not be their favourite thing to do or what they know they are good at. We look at these as opportunities to help us to learn more about ourselves and grow in our mind and our body. Today during our group games on the oval friends demonstrated their ability to have courage and be brave. We focused on how we were feeling when faced with a high rope to ju...mp or a ball to catch. We thought about what was happening in our bodies when we looked at this rope. What were we thinking? What were we going to do? In our meditation circle we shared a short story about being brave. Some friends shared their thoughts about what brave meant to them. Banks said, It is when you are feeling scared and you have to give it a try. We talked a lot about the fact that bravery doesnt mean fearlessness. It means doing something even though were scared. To become brave, children need to learn to tolerate feeling scared and not let fear hold them back. This feeling of being scared or nervous is often a sign that they are doing something new or challenging. The story explained having a feeling like butterflies flying around in your stomach. Some of us knew this feeling and we took the time to talk about this more. We noticed how much the flowers had grown in the community garden. As we looked closer we discovered lots of clay creations hiding amongst the flowers. We were very curious as to how they got there! Julya explained that she had been making garden statues with some friends from the Explorers. This inspired many of the children to think of their own sculpture designs. We wondered what would happen when it rained or when the garden was watered. Once again we shared our ideas and realised that if the clay got wet or broken it would actually go back into the garden bed feeding the soil with lots of nutrients to help them grow more. I look forward to seeing the changes next week.

21.01.2022 FELC Daily Journal Tuesday 15 September 2020 Today was a busy day at FELC! We started the day with two visitors from the Sunshine Coast Council arriving at FELC to talk to about animal safety and pet care. This experience was offered to the Investigator and Discoverer children, and as pet play has been such a significant play inquiry within the Explorers, the children were invited to join the conversation with the kindy children to support their thinking and add another lay...er of knowledge to their inquiry. All children carefully listened to the information and responded with their ideas through appropriate questions and free flowing conversation. After morning tea the Discoverer and Investigator children headed off to sports day, the Explorers had their tun this afternoon. It was wonderful to see the children engage in experiences that challenged their gross motor capabilities. After watching some more confident children, many who were unsure were ready to try something new. Today children were introduced to sports aligned with Little Athletics; high jump, shot put and running races with a baton. The most exciting new opportunity was the high jump. Children lined up and patiently waited for their turn, before running and jumping over the stretchy string. It was so significant to observe the encouragement, persistence and sense of community amongst the FELC friends. The sense of belonging within FELC and the Explorer community has naturally shifted towards a connection with the natural environment and caring for others. From watering the community flower garden, the idea of a bird bath has grown to needing both a bird feeder and drinker and different types of bowls for other animals to drink. A small group of children have engaged in the process of visiting the flower garden each afternoon and reflecting on how to make their thinking visible. This thread of thinking yesterday transpired at lunch time when the magpies came to visit. One friend filled their cup of water and placed it carefully on the ground as an offering. It didnt take long before friends took on this offering and added their cup to, after having a drink. To honour this thinking, we will slowly work alongside the children in refining their ideas and investigating more into their idea of the importance of interdependence of living things. Next term we will offer our ideas to Julya as a mentor to bring the childrens thinking together and alive.

20.01.2022 Investigator Daily Journal Friday 28 August 2020 With the introduction of the colour mixing studio, we have noticed that there are many children who engage in this learning opportunity regularly while others are yet to venture into this learning space. As educators we wondered How do we encourage all children to engage in this activity.... Sometimes the answer is as simple as time. This week we naturally noticed more children gravitating towards this space and engaging in colour mixing for the first time. Another strategy we use is sharing learnings and understandings during afternoon reflection time. In relation to colour mixing, we share strategies and painting techniques through photographs on the whiteboard (in which children can describe to the class what they have learnt about colour mixing) or by sharing artworks created. During this process friends will naturally ask questions to their peers enabling a shared knowledge and understandings of the process to be developed.

20.01.2022 Explorer Daily Journal Friday 28 August 2020 We are continuing to support the childrens understanding of sustainability and how to protect the environment. To this end we have been offering recycled wood in our art space. These were actually rescued from Jos house and just like the recycling artist, Thomas Dambo who uses discarded wood from demolition houses to create enormous sculptures around the world, we decided to use them in a creative way. Woodblock printing is a pop...ular art form in Japan and the wooden pieces which come in a variety of shapes and sizes make great printing tools. When the children come together to create art they learn about collaboration and community, as well as new techniques. Bush Kindy offers children so many unique opportunities to explore the world in a natural environment. On one of our recent trips, a small group found intriguing squiggly marks on one of the tree trunks. The children shared different theories with each other. One friend thought it was writing. Another friend thought it was numbers. We decided to offer their discovery and their thinking to the group. At the heart of this endeavour is NOT to find out the truth or scientific facts about what the marks are or how they are made. A big part of the childrens learning journey is to solicit their ideas, find out what they think, encourage them to listen to others and nurture their thinking as they build on this to keep theorising. By engaging in this process of critical thinking, the children learn about drawing logical conclusions from observations and to draw on previous experiences. As teachers this is probably one of the hardest things to do but the children benefit from this process and learn that their ideas are valuable and valued. Thank you for participating in the Premiers reading challenge. We are clearly big lovers of books, Humptys wall got huge! The children will be bringing home certificates of participation.

19.01.2022 Explorer Daily Journal Tuesday 8 September 2020

19.01.2022 Discoverer Daily Journal Friday 28 August 2020 The children have expressed their interest several times in making Sushi. Each week our intention is to demonstrate and practise a few specific cooking skills. Today the children made spring rolls which involved lots of chopping and rolling. Together the team though sushi and sausage rolls could be next. As each cooking experience requires a lot of preparation, the children thoroughly washed their hands before using their culina...ry and fine motor skills to grate the carrots, shred the cabbage, mince the garlic and snip some herbs. The next step was to carefully cook the mince before adding our well prepared vegetables. The children commented on the aroma saying how nice it smelt. The steam is rising, so we have to be careful! What do we do if we get burnt? Put it under cold water. The next stage and the trickiest in preparing, was to roll some filling in the special wrappers, concentrating on folding, tucking and rolling. The children were ever so patient when waiting for Gail to separate the sheets. Lastly, we shallow fried these beautiful spring rolls, before devouring them at lunch time. Great job everyone. As our relationships continue to develop with our friends from the Moving Moments program we are finding more and more ways to stay connected with them.We understand the concept of communicating via zoom and know that we can see and talk to our friends using the white board and I pad. The children are starting to feel more confident to speak in front of the camera and share information and ask lots of questions. Our special friends always enjoy our connection time too where we sing familiar songs and catch up on what has been happening over the past week. We talk a lot about how it must make our friends feel to talk to us each week. We noticed that they are always smiling and have things to share or show us. One friend said that they are always happy! Together we thought that we could draw pictures or make a card for them similar to one Renee made for us. From here the children sat in small groups drawing ideas and thinking about what message they could say. We brainstormed ways of getting the letters to them. We were excited to ask Sarah for some envelopes, write the addresses and go to the big school to post them. We look forward to seeing what may happen next.

18.01.2022 Explorer Daily Journal Friday 4 September 2020 A typical day at pre-Kindy is busy but so much of that busyness can derive from adults need to rush on to the next thing. Adults, and teachers in particular, are excellent at chopping up time into chunks that we manage. A school year is divided into terms. Terms are divided into weeks and then school days. School days are subsequently divided again into timeframes that we micro-manage, forgetting that childrens days are origi...nally whole and dedicated to play. How much of the childrens short attention spans are modelled by us and the To do list in our heads? This self-reflection on practice is a timely reminder to slow down, to sit with not knowing for a little bit longer, and not be afraid to revisit ideas. Long blocks of uninterrupted play help children deepen their thinking and extend their capacity to engage for longer. To support this the saying, less is more definitely comes in handy. The more provocations we offer can actually over-stimulate children and encourage them to constantly seek the next new thing. To this end, never underestimate the power of an empty box. The children have been using huge boxes to support their play and co-author a variety of narratives. The boxes have been houses, eggs to hatch from, kitten homes, a boat... the possibilities have been endless. And that, ultimately, is what we hope for the children we work with too. For them to see the limitless possibilities in every opportunity, and to be able to reconfigure these possibilities to create limitless opportunities for themselves. We have noticed some children are showing signs of being unwell. Please remember that if they have a persistent cough they need to stay at home.

18.01.2022 Would you like to sing a song for Mummy on Mothers Day?

18.01.2022 Investigator Daily Journal Thursday 26 November 2020

16.01.2022 Discoverer Daily Journal Wednesday 2 December 2020 Heat, sunshine and water were the themes of our day. On Monday we had an invite from Andrew at the big school, to come over today to play in the sprinklers! Some friends arrived wearing their swimming clothes while others had theirs packed in bags ready to change. With a busy early morning of Christmas music, dancing, building, painting and drawing, after morning tea we were ready to get wet! Firstly we needed to make sure t...o Slip Slop Slap. We covered ourselves in sunscreen, making sure to include our legs, ears, backs of necks and arms; then we got changed into swimming clothes remembering to put on shoes and sun hats. We ventured along the winding path to the Forrester Ovals, trying to spy where the sprinkles were going to be. Once we turned the big corner, friends spotted the jets of water spearing into the sky right across the fields nearest to the cricket building. It was time to get wet! Friends ran in and out of the jet streams, trying to dodge them OR just get completely wet.. There was no in between! The sound of laughter, squeals of excitement and giggles filled the air amongst streams of water cooling us all down. By the end of the morning, everyone was wet- including the teachers! Back to FELC and we were treated to a lovely cold icy pole brought in today by Liam’s family. What a great way to cool off during such a hot day!

16.01.2022 Daily Journal Friday 6 December 2020 What a wonderful day we have with shared experiences across the Centre. Today we said goodbye to many of our friends who had their last day at FELC and are heading off on holidays before starting Prep in 2021. With an amazing magic show in the morning and a Christmas party in the afternoon, our day was complete.

16.01.2022 Discoverer Daily Journal Tuesday 1 December 2020 We had very excited children this morning telling me their elf on a shelf arrived this morning. As we roll into December and the last month of this crazy year we had an amazing day starting off our morning with Christmas music and then a visit from Nickleby the magician. He tricked us with a flying guitar, rabbits appearing and water nearly tipped over Tracy. The afternoon was spend preparing for the disco and party food. Flash...ing lights were hung and all the classes came together for lots of dancing, finished off by watermelon, popcorn and an icy pole. We were also introduced to a raffle. Each child placed their name in our big basket for a chance to win our ‘Discoverers Discoverers’ book we have enjoyed all year. Jackie drew the name and our lucky winner was Indiana. Tomorrow morning at drop off, the Christmas present that your child has made you will be ready for pick up. We will be having a special experience tomorrow of running under the school oval sprinklers. Could you please pack swimmers, rasher, extra hat, towel and a pair of water proof throngs/shoes that they can run around and get wet in. See more

16.01.2022 Explorer Daily Journal Monday 31 August 2020 Eating together at morning tea and lunch provides many opportunities for discussion as friends share the excitement of whats inside their containers. The most popular offering is asking who has .........? and then an in the moment tally is created. We also hear the curious question of whats that? Friends are always eager to share the name and explain the taste. Last week, one friend was very interested in Ingrids morning tea.... It smells delicious, can I have some? Ingrid had a jar of yoghurt and muesli. To support this curiosity to try a new food, this morning a small group worked together in the kitchen to create morning tea for everyone. Each little jar had vanilla or strawberry yoghurt spooned in and then muesli sprinkled on top. While spooning out the yoghurt, a question was posed, What happens if you mix the two flavours together? A delicious flavour was created and now there were three different flavours on offer. As the yoghurt and muesli was offered around the circle at morning connection, we spoke about being a risk taker and trying new foods. It was amazing to see, all children trying the flavour combinations and having more than one try, even if they were a little unsure at first. The verdict was, yummy, delicious and lots of thumbs up to share their experience. The jars were empty and many children asked for more. The Explorer community provides the opportunity for children to experience and explore a range of foods and be a part of the process. Food continues to be a strong connector of exploring who we are as individuals but also as one.

16.01.2022 Investigator Daily Journal Monday 30 November 2020 Thank you Investigators for a great start to the 2nd last week of Term 4 - there’s a lot of fun still to have together before we part ways, enjoy the wonderful festive season ahead and you start Prep next year. The morning was spent with a focus on building, dress up and home corner, creating and crafting - some of us made their own fairy wings with Michelle and others started Christmas tree decorations with Maddy. The Christ...mas and New Years theme was picked up at our artists table and we painted Christmas trees and fireworks. The builders came up with intricate varieties of cutting and shooting devices - some guns blast water, some shrink things and some help cut the grass. In home corner a family of cats and dogs and babies was busy dressing up as fairies and princesses. Later in the morning we had a dance and our Beastie Boys song is still a massive favourite with the kids. Tomorrow we’re going to be amazed by a Magic Show in the morning and in the afternoon we’ll have a small end of year party with shared foods and music and a cake that we’ll bake in the morning. Please encourage your child to come dressed in a Christmassy outfit eg. with a Santa shirt or reindeer headband.

15.01.2022 Explorer Daily Journal Tuesday 1st and Wednesday 2nd September Tuesday 1st and 2nd of September With the lovely warmer weather we have observed the children spending more time outside exploring their play thinking in new environments. The ice cream shop moved out onto the veranda with ice-cream picnics and taking pets out for an ice-cream. Building on from last weeks thinking about how ice-cream is made, a photo provocation of ice-cream coming out of a machine was offered to... the children. The children were invited to share their thinking. Winnie- its a ice-cream machine and made with sugar. Charlie T- It goes shhhhh out. Connor- You need to put it in the oven. Sophie- The machine mixes and then come sout. Emma- It has vanilla and sugar. Harvey L- Its an oven machine. Harvey S- It comes out and then goes to the ice-cream shop Luella- You need milk. Through play and making ice-cream the process has involved putting the mixture into the oven. This idea has been offered back through a question, Does ice-cream go in the oven? Everyone was invited to vote through a tally system. The results showed 13 friends thought yes and 8 said no. With some ideas of ice-cream mixture needing eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla we will next week create a recipe with these ideas and bake it in the oven to see if we can make ice-cream. This week one of our podcasts we listened to was Why does a snake go ssssss with its tongue poking out? Afterwards, we talked about what we need to do if we happen to find a snake at Kindy or at home while playing. We spoke about the importance of being quiet, moving backwards slowly with our arms crossed and letting the closest adult know straight away. Celebrations and food are very important to us as a community and with Fathers Day approaching children shared their Dads favourite food and chocolate was a popular choice. We hope all Dads have a great day celebrating on Sunday and enjoy their Rocky Road, if it lasts until then! Happy 4th Birthday Harvey, thank you for bringing in yummy ice-blocks to celebrate.

15.01.2022 Investigator Daily journal Wednesday 16 September 2020 Imaginative play is essentially when children are role playing and are acting out various experiences they may have had or something that is of some interest to them. They are experimenting with decision making on how to behave and are also practising their social skills. Children learn from experience: from what happens around them, from what they see, hear, smell, taste and touch. To absorb those experiences and mak...Continue reading

15.01.2022 Discoverer Daily Journal Monday 7 September 2020 Throughout the year we have had a special star folder that hides our story of the day. Each day a different child gets picked and its the excitement and anticipation of determining is it a book, is it a felt story or is there a notes telling us the secret hiding spot of the story. The children have even started to hypothesis the outcome by the weight of the folder. Last week Jack M and Koby started a new trend, where the chi...ldren are taking responsibility for the book and the note they want to leave. Both boys took the time to write their own note, giving the class the clue on the location of the daily story and then they are picking a class mate to go on the search for the hidden story. The joy the teachers are getting is how the children are now taking control of their own learning. They are enjoying taking on the responsibility of writing the note and the secret challenge of hiding the book without anyone noticing. As the morning began, Lexie was one of the first to arrive and she had bought in her own book from home to share. However, she didnt just want to read it with everyone, she wanted to put it in the Star Folder. She was keen to write her note with clues and then hid her book in a secret location for someone to find. Perhaps this is another aspect that will continue with this trend- bringing in a personal book from home to share? During morning connection we introduced the children to a new group game- Puzzle Swapping! Everyone was very intrigued to find out more about this game and listened to the instructions before having a go. Basically, the trick is that everyone sits in a circle and has a puzzle in front of them, we start some music and children begin doing their puzzle to the beat of the music. When the music stops, everyone moves to the left and continues the new puzzle in front of them! As the rainy weather set in, we took the chance to do some cooking. Looking in the fruit bowl we saw that we had a lot of apples. What could we make with apples? Indi suggested an apple cake and this idea was agreed upon straight away, without the need to think of any other apple ideas. A small group of friends sourced the ingredients from within our kindy kitchen, and also in the big kitchen. We decided to cook in the large kitchen, as it provided a new space for us to venture to on this very wet day! Cooking friends mixed, poured, measured, cracked eggs, cut apples and stirred all the ingredients together.. before pouring it into a prepared cake tin. The apple slices were positioned on top of the mixture and the whole thing popped into the oven to bake. We are looking forward to sharing warm apple cake with our friends at afternoon tea! Reminder to everyone that we have our class photos tomorrow. Big smiles and full FELC uniform please.

14.01.2022 Discoverer Daily Journal Friday 11 September 2020 One of our provocations this morning was a vase of flowers, marker pens, paper, sauce bottles, spoons, palette of paints and brushes. Several children were very curious and interested in knowing what we were going to do. Somehow we were going to recreate the flowers using these tools only. There were many different ideas and children listened carefully as friends predicted what might happen. We focused on the shape of the flow...ers and began with a circle centre. Each petal was created by the children using their fine motor skills and deep concentration squeezing blobs (small and big) of paint around their circle. They then when used a spoon, swooshed each blob into a teardrop shape. Lauren told us It looked like ice-cream, then like squishy mud. We loved how the children were using their imagination to see different images. We then decided to take a print of the flowers which enabled the children to have one copy to take home. The children were pleasantly surprised with their creations. As we continue to further educate our children to recycle and reuse, a group of volunteers assisted in removing a lot of beads, wool, timber circles off our hessian art piece from a previous year. The children were very capable in explaining the task to any interested friend wanting to help. Frankie admired the timber circles and said I like this one with all the circles. Another friend asked Will we fill the container? The children made a few suggestions on how we could reuse these materials . We could use the beads and string for threading. We could use the wooden circles to hang up on a hook. Aimee noticed and said, This one is getting nearly full! And added Its like knitting. My Mum knits and my grandma has a sewing machine. With amazing concentration and determination the task was completed. Thank you friends for helping each other. We look forward to reusing these materials in our classroom. Our interest in team games has continued over the last two days. We are thoroughly enjoying learning new skills and playing together with our friends. We are noticing how the childrens confidence is developing as they take more risks to join the game, take turns and persevere till the end of the game or event. Next Friday we will be having a mini sports day to really celebrate our end of term learning and play.

13.01.2022 Discoverer Daily Journal Tuesday 1 September 2020 The Discoverers ventured into the Bush Kindy today. We settled down to enjoy a picnic morning tea. And while everyone was eating we began to discuss how our first people didnt have shops to go to so they had to learn to make their own rope to tie things. When asked what they would of tied, a couple of friends suggested...to use for fishing and to tie up the animals they needed to eat. We then had a look at a picture of t...he Cabbage palm tree and it was explained that the Aborigines would strip the bark from this tree to use for rope. We attempted making our own rope by cutting strips of raffia and wetting it first. Then a friends would hold the raffia at each end and twist it in opposite directions. Once it was tight we pinched the middle of the raffia and joined the ends together. After letting go of the middle, the raffia twisted back in on itself. Once it is dry it will be strong enough to tie things up. Back inside after our quiet time, we attempted our first class tally. We have been using our letterbox pictures and using a new word digit when we are working out how many digits on each letterbox. The children embraced this experience as we all had a turn and placed a marker in the corresponding column.

13.01.2022 FELC Daily Journal Tuesday 9 December 2020 Another day filled with joy! Today we said goodbye to our MT Investigator friends, wished them a Merry Christmas and best wishes for Prep. In our very last week of the FELC year, we were excited to have Jane Blake and the Blake family join the Explorers for a cooking experience. The sprinklers were once again a hit on a steamy day.

12.01.2022 Investigator Daily Journal Monday 14th September As we draw near to the end of term we have continued to focus on kindness. What a term it has been for many, if not all of us. There have been challenges and insecurities, but we have stuck together and figured it out as we went along. I have been thinking about kindness and the many different ways the children have demonstrated kindness. But kindness is not only about doing kind things for others. It is also about being kind t...Continue reading

12.01.2022 FELC Daily Journal Thursday 10 December 2020 A wonderful day across the Centre with children playing together and enjoying their final few days at FELC for 2020. Farmer Jeff accepted an invitation to visit us at FELC today. The children enjoyed spending time with Jeff and sharing their spaces and experiences with him. We thanked Farmer Jeff for giving us such amazing farm experiences. Our Explorer friends headed off to the big school to challenge themselves on the large playground equipment.

12.01.2022 Investigator Daily Journal Monday 31st August Over the past few weeks I have been sharing with you our focus on kindness....in particular the boomerang of kindness that comes back to you. As a whole FELC community, we have been focusing on our noticings of children post COVID, and the impact this has had on children constructing knowledgeable and confident self identities. We have talked about how impressed we have been with the childrens abilities to cope with the new routi...Continue reading

10.01.2022 Explorer Daily Journal Thursday 26 November 2020 Today’s blog is written by a small group of the Explorers. Lilly: Today I built some pizzas. They were pineapple, strawberry, orange, and there was apple. I did a show when I danced, and I did a beautiful show and everyone clapped and Mila joined in.... Lulu: I made chocolate cakes for my friend called Indi. Will: I built a house with blocks. I built it with Chad and Aaryan. There was pizza and peoples and babies and Chad and Aaryan. Grace: Today was Lilly’s show. Lilly did dancing in her show and me and Hannah joined in. We did sort of dancing like Lilly was. I built a rainbow for the farm. Rafael: I builded a small house. It had a garage. I built with Felicity. And me and Harlow and Cooper made ice cream in the sandpit. Aliza: I played all the princess and did all the dancing. Mila: I played the show. Millie: I played dancing. I watched the dancing show. I put a dress on. I like the spots. Harlow: I played in the sandpit with Cooper and Rafael. We were making ice cream in the sandpit. One chocolate, one strawberry and one apple ice cream. And one cupcake. This week and next week we will be sending Thinking Journals home in special hand painted bags. Christmas presents will go home next week. Please let us know if you will be leaving earlier and will need to take presents home tomorrow. If you are returning to FELC in 2021, Thinking Journals will need to be brought back for the Kindy year.

10.01.2022 Discoverer Daily Journal Monday 14 September 2020 A few excited children announced upon their arrival that their older brother or sister were dressing up for a book Week at the big school today. Friends shared their intrigue as they relayed what costumes their siblings were wearing- there was Grug, Cat in the Hat and a Blue Tongue Lizard to name a few. A spontaneous trip to the big school was called, and we set about getting ourselves ready. We arrived at the school as the b...ig students were having morning tea. They didnt look like normal students though because they were all dressed in such creative costumes! We chatted to some students about their outfits and then we saw Alec with his special friend- Cooper, the Groodle. Alec introduced us all to Cooper and we asked him important questions like What does Cooper eat? Or Where does Cooper sleep? Alec answered them for us and we all got to give Cooper a pat. Mrs Ram invited us into her classroom and we saw the wonderful costumes that her fiends had on. Afterwards, we took the chance to move our bodies on the Prep playground, before returning to Felc. The bees on the back oval have been a source of interest from peers since the weather has started to get warmer. We are noticing them more, flying about the small white flowers that have popped up since Spring has begun. Today we watched a short clip about bees and learnt a few things about them. To build on this curiosity, we took magnifying glasses to the soccer oval during our rest period, and tried to observe them even closer. We watched as they dipped and dived from flower to flower and listened to the hum of their wings. Some friends decided to draw a bee, using their magnifying glass to look closely at their prominent features.

10.01.2022 Investigator Daily Journal Wednesday 2 August 2020 This morning the children were bursting with play ideas. Two friends connected and returned to the idea of creating a lion house. They constructed the external structure ensuring that there was a doorway. We are building a house. We have a door for the tiger. I am the person and my friend is the tiger. The children spotted small, colourful transparent blocks that they used to carefully and purposefully add detail to the bui...lding. Design and aesthetics played a large role in the blocks placements. As the friends worked other children, who are familiar with the tiger play idea, popped in and out of their play. In another pocket of play, a group of friends came together to play Ninjas. The friends found Ninja masks (scarves) and ventured together into the art studio to make Ninja swords. I dont know how to make swords one Ninja declared. Fortunately, the Ninjas bumped into more friends in the art studio who were in the process of creating swords. I know how to make swords offered the friend who began supporting the Ninja friends in the development of their play tools. Once the swords were finished, friends headed outside to work on their Ninja house. In these play experiences we are seeing the exploration of play ideas that have been a part of Investigator play during the year. As daily discussions and reflections occur we are observing different children try out these play themes. Daily reflections and sharing of play ideas enables the children to become familiar with each other play ideas and to have an understanding of the play construct that is occurring. This enables friends to move fluidly in and out of play ideas happening throughout the space. It also encourages friends to try out new play ideas. New friends to the play idea often check in with others, who are more experienced, on how to create play artefacts including swords, Ninja costumes and tiger houses.

09.01.2022 Discoverer Daily Journal Tuesday Water ways- A team of friends went for a trek to the faraway creek this morning. The creek all the way down near the cricket building. The one we had ventured to only once before with a small group of peers and one that was very talked about amongst friends - wanting to explore more. It was a very warm day, so we we decided a trip to the creek would be perfect- allowing us to get our feet in the cool stream, searching for tadpoles and fish..... So off we set after morning tea, a team of 13 with Julya and Bec. Along the way we spotted butterflies and insects and Julya shared her knowledge of certain flora we spotted. We learnt about the Lomandra Bush, it has lots of small seed pods attached to it that are green at the moment.. but when they turn a bit more brown, we can take them off and use them like popcorn kernels! Natures Popcorn. We will definitely keep an eye on this over the final weeks of Kindy and hopefully we will get to try and cook them! At the creek we were disappointed to see that it was dry! No water at all where it was flowing freely at our last visit. Friends followed the natural path of the creek, dipping under logs, winding around corners and over fallen vines and tee stumps, hoping to find water the further we went. Unfortunately we only found a small puddle deep inside the forest creek, but we did spot a small Bearded Dragon which was exciting. A new plan was devised, let’s go back to the normal creek Sam suggested. Another walk ahead of us, stopping in the shade along the way, taking time to have a drink from the fountain and seeing if we could spot any more insects or fascinating plants. Before we knew it, we had reached our ‘normal creek’. Friends peered over the side off the bridge, seeing lots of small fish and water spiders darting across the surface. Turtle! exclaimed Harrison.. and sure enough there was a turtle swimming just under the surface! What a fantastic surprise. On more inspection, we saw one more turtle too! Children tried their luck at fishing with their homemade fishing rods and also tried a new way - with bucket and string. Sam caught three small fish using the bucket method. We caught and then released them back into their waterway home. I wonder if we get to see the turtles again on our next visit to the creek?

08.01.2022 Investigator Daily Journal Wednesday 2 December 2020 Today the Investigator friends headed out to the oval for a morning spent together under our large gum trees. In this open cool space we spent time creating bush art, playing card games and engaging in adventurous bush play. Tomorrow the Investigators will have the opportunity to head out to the oval for waterplay under the sprinklers. For this adventure friends will need to bring along swimsuits, towels, rashies and water ...shoes (crocs, thongs etc) to join in the fun. A number of friends have also requested if they can bring their beyblade to kindy. Tomorrow we will have a beyblade tournament. Friends are invited to bring to kindy their beyblade stadiums and beyblades. We look forward to seeing you all tomorrow for a day full of fun.

08.01.2022 Explorer Daily Journal Thursday 10 September 2020 FELCs environment encourages children to explore all spaces and follow their thinking rather than be restricted to their class. Today was a classic example of this with the Discoverers building an interesting structure. We asked Raff and James from the Discoverers what they were up to and they let us know that they were making a fairy trap based on a book they were reading. This intrigued the Explorers and very soon a team ad...ded to the structure and were learning about stability from their older peers. Friends were excited that they could fit quite a few Explorers inside and then had to problem-solve how to build a roof. Peer-to-peer teaching is a really critical way that children learn. They share their experiences with others and learn about listening as well. Other friends revisited their thinking around boats, pirates and treasure. The children split up into different groups, some making maps, some making treasure, others collecting treasure for the treasure chest and others burying treasure in the sandpit. Another group went to play soccer on the oval. Games with rules are great for self-regulation and turn-taking. After soccer the children explored the surrounds, discovering the massive stump there, perfect for narratives. A huge stick was used for balancing then brought back for all of us to paint. The group were also lucky to see two kangaroos! How lucky we are that our environment is so full of native wildlife and offers so much open possibilities. A reminder that photos are tomorrow. We suggest you pack yoghurt for lunch, not morning tea...! Thinking Journals have also gone home. Please add photos of your beautiful family to the family page and enjoy reading and interacting with your childs learning journey so far. We ask that you return them, if possible by next week so that we can keep adding to it.

08.01.2022 Explorer Daily Journal Thursday 3 December 2020 Today was the perfect day for running through the sprinklers which we were lucky to do thanks to Andrew. Often it’s the simple pleasures that give us the most joy and the smiles on the children’s faces says it all! An advanced happy birthday to Connor who turns 4 during the holidays. The popsicles were the perfect end to a sunny summer day in the sun.

07.01.2022 Discoverer Daily Journal Tuesday 8 September 2020 Sam spent a great deal of time creating with the hot glue gun when he arrived in the morning today. He silently sourced the items he would need, clearly having a plan in his mind; and went about designing his idea. He confidently used the hot glue gun, without needing support, concentrating as he glued assorted pieces into their desired place. When he had finished the gluing part, he painted it. This is what he said about his... creation: Its a place where Ive heard about. Some people actually live there, it has a creek where you actually catch bait and then fish with it on the jetty. The house is where the people live. -Sam Roxy arrived this morning excited to be the person to write the secret note for our star folder story time. It is so lovely watching the childrens enthusiasm to write the note and designate the location to hide the story. It is such an important opportunity for the children to feel that they have a voice in our daily experiences. The class photo was a huge success today with everyone laughing at the monkey on the photographers head and telling us to say stinky socks!

07.01.2022 Investigator Daily Journal Thursday 3 November 2020 A morning of water play under the sprinklers, what a great way to keep cool!

06.01.2022 Discoverer Daily Journal Monday 31 August 2020

05.01.2022 Explorer Daily Journal Friday 11 September 2020 Over the past few weeks we have been asking the children about what they believe they are good at, and what they would like to be better at or wish they could do. These are difficult and abstract concepts and some might baulk at the idea of offering this to young children, thinking them too young. FELCs image of child supports a vision of a child who is capable and competent. We nurture their self-confidence and encourage their... strengths, rather than view what they cant do. Last time we asked Charlie his ideas and he said: I dont know. This week we revisited the question and he offered: I can fix animals; dinosaurs and bears. When asked what he wished he could do, he said, I want to learn how to fix dinosaurs and bears that die. Charlies response affirms two key things. It affirms our image of child - given enough time to process ideas, children can surprise us with their depth and profoundness. Charlies response also represents the Explorers deep connection to animals and all living things. Throughout the year this has been a consistent thread, make-believe trips to Australia Zoo, SeaLife, fishing, family play with animal puppets and of course, our wonderful visits to Farmer Jeff and the farm. We are representing the childrens thinking in a collaborative art piece that is combining our love for animals with our growing awareness of sustainability and our impact on the environment. The rescued wood from Jos renovations have been used for woodblock printing and after some discussion the painted blocks are being used to cover a repurposed photograph of a sea turtle. This is inspired by the illustrations from the story, The Blue Giant, which depict animals getting tangled in rubbish and getting hurt. We have to tell the mummies about the rubbish! Said one friend. And the dinosaurs! The children reconnected to their love of narrative and puppets, working together on the classic story, The Three Little Pigs. Different groups used different mediums to represent the three houses. As expert puppet-makers they were able to create their own little pigs and wolves which went from house to house, following the storyline. Next week is the last week of Term 3. Time has flown and we are noticing some of the children are a little bit less resilient and feeling tired. If you are able to have some family days over the holidays or shorter days that would definitely help children recharge for Term 4. Our friend Houston will also be leaving us soon to go on a big adventure. We will be celebrating the event next Friday on the last day of term with a special sports day. If children have running shoes this will come in handy.

05.01.2022 Investigator Daily Journal Thursday 3 September 2020 As we venture out into the Bush kindy each week the Investigator friends are learning to use the space so resourcefully. Each week they find new natural resources to engage with. Things like noticing how things grow and where things live. They are learning to respect nature and turn things gently as they observe insects, plants and listen for different bird varieties. Their dramatic play narratives are imaginative as they c...limb, balance and build their ideas around this natural space. We were also able to spend time around our community garden where we observed a variety of plants with many different colours. There were also butterflies landing amongst the flowers which was beautiful to watch. Another exciting visit to the farm today. Friends settled immediately into our jobs, feeding the chickens and collecting the eggs. This soon turned into a small maths lesson, the question posed - if we already had three eggs in the container and we found six more, how many eggs do we have. Each child eagerly pointed to each egg and counted aloud, keen to know how many eggs we had. Next Farmer Jeff noticed that Daisy, the Ducks pond was quite dirty. Our friends worked together to clean it out and provide fresh, clean water. Once done we rounded up Daisy - always fun to watch several children chasing down a duck, and placed her in her clean tub. The children delighted in watching as Daisy splashed and preened, flapping her wings and wriggling her tail feathers. We spent the remainder of our visit picking snow peas, celery, broccoli, strawberries and passion fruit to take back to FELC. Again we are reminded of how lucky we are to see first hand how these foods are grown. Our friends picked and tried some of the organic produce discussing taste, texture, colour and shape. We will try and find some time tomorrow to get into the kitchen and cook something yummy. Each afternoon at kindy we meet together for afternoon tea. During this time, we share a fruit platter together. Please remember to pack a piece of fruit each day to place into the fruit bowl.

05.01.2022 Investigator Daily Journal Tuesday 1 December 2020 Additional Photos

05.01.2022 FELC Daily Journal Wednesday 9 December 2020 Today we had a shared morning tea celebrating the final day for the MTW Discoverer and Explorer children. We also celebrated Kirrily's birthday with her, as she will turn 21 over the holidays. Our wonderful Teacher Tracy M also had her last day at FELC. Tracy has been a wonderful member of our team for 8 years and will be truly missed. What a wonderful Wednesday we had together.

05.01.2022 Investigator Daily Journal Friday 11 September 2021 It was a busy wet Friday. The room was filled with construction and artist expression. We had dancing and dress-ups, Duplo and Collage. The Investigator friends engaged constructively together and were champions throughout the day despite the wet weather and it being Photo Day We continued to practice our letter writing with much jubilation as some friends achieved new successes in their efforts for greater detail in thei...r letter shapes. As we practice our skills daily we see growth in all areas of development. We are building our sense of belonging and our personal identities. We learn who we are and how we are connected to the world around us. Have a wonderful weekend everyone. See more

04.01.2022 Discoverer Daily Journal Thursday 10 September 2020 Our friend Angela from Moving Moments visited us today with a handful of letters from our friends. We were excited to see photos of them receiving and opening our letters that we sent a few weeks ago. The comments and immense gratitude from each and every one of the residents was passed to each child as they read the kind words and looked at their pictures. The act of sharing a letter on pretty paper with a hand written... and heart thought message was something very special and I could see that it really made a difference to some of our friends. A small group of children spent extra time drawing with our friends via zoom. They shared conversations and lots of stories with each other. The joy that the children are giving these older members in our community is incredibly special. Many children spent the morning making cards and drawing pictures for Angela to take back to our friends. We have also started to make a documentation collage of what we are receiving showing how our relationship with these friends has developed over time. Sharing and waiting for our turn to use something at Kindy can often be a challenging concept. Today there were many opportunities to talk about how to be fair when we are playing with our friends. When we asked the children what the word, Fair meant, Archie replied, Its being kind. Banks said, You have to use kind words. Indigo said, It means you have to share things. Tori suggested that It means you cant snatch. Xander also talked about having to wait to use something. Each comment created a new conversation and the chance to share stories that we had possibly seen throughout the day. Through role playing different scenarios and modelling specific language we were able to reflect on what happened in our play and talked about how we could be a fair and a kind friend next time.

04.01.2022 Discoverer Daily Journal Wednesday 9 September 2020 Today was all about birthdays! Three to be exact - Koby, Sophie and Bridie. Kobys actual birthday was today, Sophies is tomorrow and Bridies is on Saturday.. and how lucky we were to have them all bring in cupcakes to share today! We had three separate birthday songs and dances around the sun, celebrating each individual child. The cupcakes were absolutely well received by everyone, after all you can never have too many... cakes of course! As our day continued, children got messy with shaving cream, swirling, mixing and squelching the foam between their fingers and hands. Peers immersed themselves in the sensory play, laughing and giggling as their hands, arms, some faces and hair got covered! This type of experience provides a great opportunity for children to not only delve into sensory play, but also to connect socially with each other while developing their language skills by talking and chatting amongst themselves about what they are noticing and feeling. Most of all, it was extremely messy, very humorous and immensely fun! Another huge event happened at Kindy today to our friend Sam. He lost his first tooth at morning tea! Everyone was so intrigued to see his actual tooth in the tissue and then observed the spot it came out of in his mouth. And even more exciting, some friends knew about the Tooth Fairy because of older siblings, so we were very interested to know that the TF was perhaps going to visit Sam tonight!

04.01.2022 Investigator Daily Journal Tuesday 8th September 2020 Today the sun was shining and it was photo day! Dry different focus from our rainy day exploration yesterday. The children were very competently went about their business of playing and creating while we supported children with photos. I shared a story today about twins who were invited to a fancy dress birthday party and they could not decide what they wanted to drew up in. It was a rhyming story and there was magic invol...ved and dragons and witches and dinosaurs....The children were very engaged. Im not sure if this was the impetus, but later in the morning when the boys were dancing to their Beastie Boys music, the girls decided they needed to dress up also. Now there was competition and a compromise. Can we dance to the same music, can we take turns, or can we have all dance together to different music. We have continued with our kindness boomerang and catching all the random acts of kindness. I have been documenting all these, and the children now come to me and ask me to write it in the list. Have you written it down Kathryn so we can tell the children. On Tuesday afternoon it is tradition for us to come together and share the week that was and I do make a point of reading each one out and if there is time we watch a slide show of our week. This afternoon was a stark contrast of walking through the Bush on a rainy day and dressing up and dancing in the beautiful sunshine. How lucky we are! Through listening to the children and giving them the opportunity to lead conversations and deeply listening to what they are saying we can actively respond to their ideas and contributions. We are giving them the opportunity to be responsible for their own learning experiences, knowing that we are here to support them if they need us. Thank you for another wonderful week. Stay safe and well everyone. One more week until holidays.

04.01.2022 Explorer Daily Journal Thursday 3 September 2020 In a couple of weeks we will be sending the childrens Thinking Journals home with children for you to add photos to their home page. The home page is dedicated to the concept of family and parents as the childs first teachers. You may wish to glue in photos of your home, family members, pets, special places, things you love to do together, anything that represents home and family. The Thinking Journals are a tangible re...cord of the childrens significant experiences. They include the thinking the children have been involved in, drawings of play artefacts that are special to them or special connections they have made with others. The Thinking Journals are also a lovely way to reflect on the childrens learning with your child and we encourage you to look through them together, to solicit their ideas and listen to their wonderings. We also encourage you to write in their journals - a FELC-to-home dialogue is extra challenging during this strange time of social distancing and lockdowns. This is a lovely way to hear the familys voice and for you to feel a part of your childs learning journey. In the meantime you may like to start collecting a series of photos for your childs home page so that they can be returned to FELC for children to add more of their artwork and thinking.

04.01.2022 Investigator Daily Journal Tuesday 1 September 2020 We continued to capture evidence of kindness and empathy throughout the day. I have written all these up on brown paper and shared them with the children. Rather than re type them all here, please check the photos for some good stories that will warm your heart. We will continue with this focus for the rest of the term. Yesterday our friend Mila shared a story about an unfortunate accident that happened, which resulted in he...r cousin Jake being taken to hospital for stitches. She really wanted to bake him a cake to cheer him up, so this morning we began our day making a cake for someone else. In this instance the cake was not for us to share. I wondered how the children would respond to not actually getting to eat the cake, but I wanted to give them the opportunity to know what it feels like to genuinely go out of your way for someone else, expecting nothing in return. When we came together to meet, Oscar asked about the delicious smell coming from the kitchen. We showed everyone the love heart chocolate cake and the children seemed to accept that it wasnt for them. An inquiry has begun with a small group of boys Alastair, Maxwell, Austin, James and Nicholas. It began with music and some very cool dance moves. We have been attempting for some time now to shift the focus away from Star Wars and this seems to have legs. Maddy and her team of boys introduced their inquiry this morning. We watched a kind of space video where there is a robot character and another baddie. The music is very contagious and the original group showed us some of their moves. This inspired more children to become involved. The children have begun with making some robot costumes. They have drawn plans and are working to creating their own story and perhaps filming it. We will continue to share as the work unfolds. Thank you for another wonderful week and lets keep throwing that kindness boomerang around.

04.01.2022 Discoverer Daily Journal Thursday 3 September 2020 As the children independently walk through the door after saying goodbye to their loved ones we have found that the classroom entrance is often a meeting point for many conversations and social gatherings. At times friends get so comfortable chatting that we often have a queue of friends at the door. I noticed today that some of the children had made drawings for each other and spent time handing them out and sharing what the...y had done. You can see the surprise and delight in the childrens faces as they are handed something from a friend. These strong connections then continue in their play and learning experiences. As an extension from our sensory play dough experience last week friends were eager to get their hands deep in slime and goop.They enjoyed playing with Maddy, inventing, measuring and mixing their own concoctions and colours. I loved listening to the childrens creative language to tell stories about what they were doing.Having this freedom to explore materials gave them the confidence to share ideas with one another and test their own theories about how different liquids mix together. Angela from Moving Moments visited us this morning and we were able to talk to our special friends via zoom. We all have so much to say each week and we love that the children are remembering information and conversations that they have shared over the weeks. We were very eager to see if our letters had arrived that we posted last week. Unfortunately they hadnt so fingers crossed they will get them soon. Many children were still able to tell them what they drew and the special message they sent.

02.01.2022 Investigator Daily Journal Monday 7 September 2020 As we were preparing to say goodbye last Tuesday afternoon a discussion began around water. We had been observing that the children were engaging in lots of water play in the sandpit and mud patch, but that this wasnt always purposeful and the hose was sometimes being used to simply throw water around. Our responsibility as teachers is to purposefully reflect on the play experiences the children are engaging in and consider ...learning opportunities. It occurred to me as we were discussing water wastage as a teaching team, that we should not assume that children have a deep understanding around how precious water is, and that this noticing was a perfect opportunity to check their understanding. We began by asking if anyone knew where water comes from. Some of the answers were...from the tap, pipes, hose, from the rain, clouds, the sea and we even rivers and lakes. All very solid responses. But do children have an understanding around the importance of water and the responsibility we have to preserve and protect our water? We began our day today watching a Dreamtime story about Tiddalik the frog who drank all the water and the other animals became very sick and some died. We then watched a short YouTube clip about the water cycle where we learnt some pretty cool things about where water comes from. We learnt about things like water vapour, droplets of water, condensation, when a cloud becomes too heavy it rains and the water goes into ocean, lakes, rivers and dams. James was then able to tell us about pipes and taps and how the water gets to our house. The three big words we learnt were evaporation, condensation and precipitation. We then looked at the bom website and saw a big rain front right over Maroochydore. After morning tea we put on our gum boots and raincoats and went for a walk in the rainforest. We headed off through the Bush Kindy, then discovered that the bridge was covered with water that was too deep to cross. What an adventure indeed! We headed back and found a different way to cross which took us to the outskirts of the school where we saw four kangaroos grazing. It was a wonderful adventure, requiring resilience and persistence at times and simply enjoying being out in the delicious rain. We are continuing with our kindness boomerang, capturing childrens words and offerings and will share all our recordings with you tomorrow.

01.01.2022 Discoverer Daily Journal Thursday 3 December 2020 We are treasuring our last few days together and noticing how strongly connected how friends really are to each other. As they enter the classroom they greet one another with big hugs and hellos and talk about what they have been doing and what they are going to play Friends were eager to see what Banjo had been doing at Estelle’s house and loved hearing the big story that she had written with her family. Friends enjoyed wate...r play, pouring, tipping and making potions using various colours and water droppers. They experimented with how the water overflowed and moved to different containers. We extended this thinking of mixing colours to our fresh white play dough. Friends loved squirting the paint into the dough looking at how the colours soaked and moved. During our mediation and connection time we reflected on many experiences that we had shared throughout the year. Teachers spoke from the heart and shared stories about friends showing kindness and care towards each other and towards our Kindy space. This morning we said goodbye to our special friends from the Moving Moments program. We received many thanks from each of them and were extremely touched by their immense gratitude from sharing this time with us. See more

01.01.2022 Daily Journal Monday 7 November 2020 What a wonderful day of fun across the Centre. Children worked together on their collaborative play narratives as they came together this morning. Throughout the day some friends explored fishing in the forest creek, others headed to the Prep playground, whilst some stayed at FELC and enjoyed having the whole space to themselves.

01.01.2022 Investigator Daily Journal Tuesday 1 December 2020 Ho ho ho Investigators - what a jam packed morning we had and there’s still our party ahead this afternoon! Thank you for coming to Kindy in your best Christmas fancy dress, with cute reindeer headbands and colourful Santa shirts. We’re really getting into the spirit of the festive season now and spent some of the morning with painting our Christmas stars that we cut out yesterday and decorated our verandah with them. We also... drew more Christmas art and had some colouring in sheets to choose from as well. Some of our friends also revisited building with the connectors and some others built pillow and chair forts outside. Elsewhere a small group of children helped bake a special Christmas fruit loaf for our party this afternoon. Also, both yesterday and again this morning we were visited by some of the children’s Matthew Flinders Prep teachers, we got to put a face to a name and learn who is going to be with who. Very exciting what’s coming up next year, but for now we’ll still enjoy being together. One of the highlights of the morning was the Magic Show - it was full of mind blowing tricks, funny jokes and exciting surprises. We got to see an empty can of soda being recycled and refilled! A toy bird was magically transformed into a real bunny called Mr Fluffy! We were amazed by a flying guitar and one of the teachers almost had water tipped all over her head but was saved a shower by the magician, who made the water disappear! It was a great show and at the end we were invited to give Mr Fluffy a pat if we wanted to - he was so soft and very cute! After this very good listening and presenting our best Green Zone bodies to the magician, it was time to get active and we ventured into the side yard and sandpit for digging, climbing, jumping, riding bikes and water play. We also put on a few songs to dance to in preparation for our party this afternoon. Lastly, for quiet time we were treated to a very special interactive Play School Christmas Show on the ABC. It revisited all those beloved Nursery Rhymes changed up to include the Christmas theme eg. I’m a little Christmas pot instead of tea pot and well known Christmas Songs such as We wish you a Merry Christmas and the children all got to sing and dance along. We look forward to our party soon and are grateful for these last few days with our Monday/Tuesday Investigators group. One more week ahead!

01.01.2022 Would you like to sing a song for Mummy on Mother's Day?

01.01.2022 Investigator Daily Journal Thursday 10 September 2020 We are building a sense of identity everyday with our Investigator friends. Today we showed a slideshow of everyone at play. These pictures included our play over the past 4-5 months. Many friends sat and watched, remembering games, activities and friendships that they have formed this year.... Writing our names is another way we identify ourselves and each other. Everyday we practice writing our name and knowing the sounds and names of letters that form our name. Another exciting visit over to the farm today. On conclusion of our jobs we delved back into our bee investigation. Farmer Jeff put on his bee suit and then introduced his smoker to the group. Why do we need smoke? The question was asked. It calms the bees answered one of our friends. Why do we need to calm them? queried another. So Farmer Jeff doesnt get stung and the bees dont bite us, came the reply. We helped Farmer Jeff tear apart some cardboard and egg cartons to start a fire, then took turns in pumping the machine back and forth watching as the smoke billowed out. We watched as Farmer Jeff entered the hives, pulling out several honey laden frames, replacing them with clean, empty ones. Once back in the safety of the shed we got to examine the frames closely, feeling the sticky honeycomb and tasting the sweet, golden liquid oozing out. Yum, It tastes delicious! Cried out the children as they stuck their fingers into the honeycomb again and again. Today Investigator friends found their name stones and wrote their names unassisted and hung them on the wall to remind us of our strengthening capabilities.