Our Magic Beach
‘At our beach, at our magical beach we swim in the sparkling sea, surfing and splashing and jumping the waves, shrieking and laughing with glee.”
Alison Lester – ‘Magic Beach’
This month’s nature play has been inspired by ‘The Beach”.
Did you know there is more than 70 kilometres of beach and foreshore on the Gold Coast which provide habitats for birds, sea turtles and a huge variety of marine life.
This month the pre-prep class has been investigating and researching ‘The Beach” through a range of fun and engaging inquiry-based experiences.
Group Discussion
Firstly, the children brainstormed everything they knew about the beach.
Questions they wanted answered and marine animals they wanted to know more about. Their responses were collated and made into a booklet.
Using Google Earth, the class zoomed in on the Gold Coast and identified the rocky foreshore of ;
- Burleigh Heads;
- Sand dunes at main beach;
- Golden sands of Surfers Paradise; and
- The Mangroves at Southport Broadwater parklands.
Investigation
As a collective group we investigated what can be found at the beach. Using real life and life like objects we sorted and categorised into groups of;
- Living;
- Once living; and
- Non-living.
The pre-prep class shared their knowledge with the younger children by inviting them to participate in a collaborative collage using a combination of images, paint, sand and glue.
Using the book “Magic Beach” written by Alison Lester as a guide, the children created wax resist images of the sandy foreshore, identifying shells, crabs, seaweed.
Favourite Activity
Through our group discussion it was identified that making sandcastles was the favourite activity to do at the beach.
Extending on this interest we researched lots of different sandcastle designs.
The children then designed their own sandcastle, adding shells, rocks, feathers, leaves and seaweed.
These plans were then used to guide their building of their sandcastle.
During the building process the children referred back to their design, adding extra materials or repositioning an object.
The Sea Turtles have enjoyed learning more about the beach and it’s inhabits and look forward to next months Nature Inspired Learning.
That’s all from Miss Patti and the Sea Turtles
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