Climbing Tree's initial design for our outdoor transformation.

We showed the children Climbing Tree's design and had a discussion about what they thought and what else the design needed. Soon, the children were coming up with their own designs.

A facsinating discovery at our forest one day, sparked an inquiry that also influenced the design of our outdoor learning environment.

The children discovered wood boring grubs at the forest. Observations and discussions led to an inquiry about insects and then bush tucker of Aboriginal people. In June 2017 Dernancourt Kindergarten went on an excursion to the Adelaide Botanic Gardens with Trent Hill of Indigenous Education for Kids. Learning about Aboriginal culture, the Kaurna people, bush tucker, native plants and trees inspired us to include a native and bush tucker garden in our outdoor transformation.

More of the children's interests were incorporated into the design.

Before the transformation could begin, we had to remove the old fort around our big beautiful pine tree. So as to not waste the timber from our old fort, we advertised it on Gumtree. Kingo came to repurpose the timber to use as flooring for an Old Stone House on Murrabina Aboriginal Reserve near Kingston SE.

We are so grateful to our families who are always more than happy to help make our kindy look and feel amazing! During a working bee, families helped shovel new bark chips around our climbing equipment and created a pathway winding through our soon to be bush tucker garden.