News from Uniting Care Galston Early Learning Centre

Over the past month the children at Galston Early Learning Centre have been busy researching into different types of birds and nests. This project came about when the children noticed a smaller nest in a tree in our backyard. The nest has been there for the past few months now and we determined that it is no longer a used nest. With this in mind, we decided to take a closer look! The children were thrilled to discover that the little nest had remnants of a previously hatched egg inside. They were bursting with questions regarding the mummy bird, the baby bird, the egg and the different materials the nest was constructed from.

To extend upon our knowledge of birds we read both non-fiction and fiction books that had information relating to different types of birds. So we began to engage in discussions on how the baby birds hatch from their eggs and we also found out that the baby bird is not able to fly straight away. We discovered that the mummy bird looks after the baby bird by feeding it and keeping it safe until it is big and strong enough to fly and care for itself.

Following up on our interest in birds, the children decided that they would help the mummy bird feed her babies and wanted to purchase some bird seed. Once we received the seed the children turned this activity into a cooking experience as they mixed the seed in with some leaves from around the yard to provide extra flavour. Not long after preparing the feed for the wild birds and filling up our bird feeder. The children expressed their excitement as they noticed a little visitor that came to eat their seed mixture.

In the upcoming months we will be looking forward to continuing our research into different types of birds and the children will have the opportunity to visit our Bowerbird nest in the nature garden. If you would like to come and have a look at the centre or ask any questions regarding our Educational Program please feel free to contact the Centre Director Daniela Balmer on 9653 1475.

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food waste into things that can be recycled, food scraps for our preschool worm farm, containers that can be washed and re-used for craft or soft plastics that we can now recycle at certain Coles and Woolworths supermarkets. Thank you to our families who are now using small containers for food that can be washed each day rather than zip lock bags or packages that go to landfill and take years to break down. We also have a harvest table at the front of the preschool where families can sell, trade or buy produce from our families' gardens such as herbs, jams, vegetables, eggs or flowers etc. Being environmentally aware is important to all of us at preschool and we look forward to finding new ways that we can be responsible members of our community.

We are enrolling for 2018 and have limited vacancies. Please call our director Rebecca on 96532252 or email ku.galston@ku.com.au or more details.