Today we were lucky enough to be invited to the Grand Opening of this years Mega Fauna- A Walk Through Time exhibit at the National Botanic Gardens!  We were treated by a special tour of the grounds by ranger Helen, who taught us about the rainforests eco system and showed us some amazing mega fauna which looked like wombats, kangaroos and tigers. 
After the tour finished we had the chance to explore on our own before lunch. We found an amazing tree house that pushed us to face our fear of heights to climb to the very top, we found a shelter that had been built using old branches and we got to follow our maps to find our way back to the picnic spot. 
It was such an incredible opportunity to be able to explore the new exhibit before everyone else and we are so grateful to have been invited.
Since our adventure we have been having lots of different conversations about what it might have been like to live in those times with animals that big roaming around. We cant wait until we can go back to the gardens again and to keep exploring somewhere so beautiful in our community.  

This week our Nursery started an 8 week learning journey at Tuggeranong library called 'Giggle and Wiggle'. Through this program the babies will learn new movements, rhymes and motor skills through repetition and following the actions of the instructors and their educators. It is also a good chance for the babies to get used to adventures on the cubby bus and being outside in the community through these adventures.
Since starting this journey we have seen an increase in their communication, confidence and gross motor development. We are so excited to see where this learning journey will take our children and to see how much they flourish as they become comfortable in this new environment. 

Every year to pay our respects to the fallen soldiers the Preschoolers head to the Australian War Memorial where we look at all of the different planes, uniforms, medals and get a better understanding of what life was like as a soldier during the wars. This year we were joined again by Gramps (Katharine's dad) who comes every year and Jess's friend Jeremy who works for the Airforce. Jeremy was kind enough to bring his special medals that he had received for years of service and different types of deployments and all of the different types of hats that he has to wear during the year.
While we were exploring the World War 1 gallery we watched a light and sound show which helped us to understand what it might have been like for the soldiers. This show scared us a little bit but it didn't take long for us to realise that it was just pretend and then we were really able to better comprehend what was going on. We found a boat that had holes in it and had discussions about how they got there. It was thought that it might have been made by rocks or maybe a huge gun. 
After we had finished exploring the gallery we headed to the tomb of the Unkown Soldier where we paid our respects and left a wreath that we had made earlier in the week. It was then time for a picnic lunch at Poppy's cafe. Once we had finished eating Jeremy let us try on some of his different hats which was really fun! 
We love going to the War Memorial and we love it even more when we have special people come with us to share their knowledge and experiences with us!

Over the past few weeks there has been a lot of ​roleplaying games where Toddlers would give out tickets to the zoo and then they would all set off together to see the animals. Educators decided to take the opportunity head out for the day and make their imaginations a reality.
​We started by giving the zookeepers our tickets so that we could get in and then head down to the Rhinos where we enjoyed a lovely morning tea picnic before we headed to find the aquarium. Once at the aquarium it didn't take long for us to find all of the beautiful, coloured fish swimming around. After we spent a long time looking at all of the fish and other reptiles, we headed out to find some other jungle animals. We were all so excited to see the lions, leopards and meerkats. 
After we had finished exploring, we headed back to the grassed rhino area for another picnic lunch before we headed back to Cubby for the afternoon. 
Throughout our time at the zoo, we sang so many different songs about the animals, discussed different habitats for different species and got to explore another place in our community.

​To continue with our many discussions surrounding farms, farm animals and where food comes from, today the Preschoolers headed to the Canberra Show where we saw lots of different animals, fruit and vegetables and learned a little bit about looking after sheep and cows. When we got to the show grounds the first thing we saw were some beautiful horses that were being prepared for competition by getting cleaned and brushed. Henry pointed out that the horses have special shoes on their feet like we did so that their hooves didn’t get dirty. We continued walking around and ran into our police friend Kenny Koala who let us sit on a special motor bike and jet ski before he gave us a book mark and sticker. After we said good bye to Kenny we found ourselves in the farm yard nursery where we pat a grey hound puppy, looked at some goats, donkeys, lamas, chickens, ponies and geese. After the farm nursery we explored some science experiments with Fizzics Education. We were able to experiment with balancing things on our fingers, looked at different magnets and some air pressure rockets. Finally, it was lunch time! We found a lovely spot in the shade with the perfect view of lawn mower races and a special motor bike show. After lunch we headed towards the sheep and cows. Henry was brave enough to have a try and sheering a sheep and got to keep some of the fluffy wool he sheared off the sheep. We were all brave enough to have a try at milking the dairy cow and look at the milk that came out of the teat. Before it was time to head back to Cubby, we had just enough time to watch the tiny teacup pigs race around a special course which we thought was amazing!
We all had such an amazing day at the show and learned so much about different animals and what goes into looking after them so that we can use their produce for different things. It has sparked more conversations about what other uses the produce can be used for and we will look into these questions over the coming weeks.

Today we closed the doors at Cubby and all adventured to Floriade to enjoy the sunshine and flowers! All of the children walked with educators the 2km to Commonwealth park before having a yummy picnic morning tea. After morning tea we broke into our rooms and went exploring.
The Preschoolers quickly found the Little Sprouts area where Lids 4 Kids were set up. They helped to sort out lots of lids so that they can be melted down and turned into chairs and other toys. They then had the opportunity to listen to Binion the recycling bin and learn more about the ways we can recycle. 
The Toddlers found a cool cubby house to explore amongst all of the flowers where they spent hours playing chasing games and hiding amongst the flowers. They even found a fountain with lots of water flowing through it in the middle of a garden bed. 
 The Nursery children also spent some time looking at different coloured bottle top lids and exploring the texture of some that had been melted down. After they finished in the Little Sprouts area they headed back to our base camp and explored the fresh green grass and listened to the sounds of the bands that were playing. 
When it was time for lunch we all came back together at base camp, ate lunch, some friends had a sleep and others went and listened to beautiful singing and did some dancing before we headed back to Cubby in time for afternoon tea. 
We all had such an amazing time being together as a whole center at Floriade!

Today the Preschoolers, the older Toddlers and a couple of mums and dads headed to the new physics building on campus to take part in a physics story time with best selling science author Chris Ferrie. During the Storytime we read the books "Where did we come from?", "There was a black hole that swallowed the universe", " 8 Little planets" and " Scientists, scientist what do you see?" 

The children loved being able to try new words, take part in a tug of war experiment that helped us to understand how force works and learn more about black holes and qorks. After story time we were lucky enough to take a photo with Chris and buy a couple of our favorite books from story time. 

We we are so grateful that we were invited to such a special event and we hope that we get invited to more events like this in the future! 

Upon the news of the Queens passing we found out that Parliament house was having a 96 cannon salute to remember her. We all headed down to the lake side to have the opportunity to hear them set off. Through this unique opportunity we had discussions about what some of the important things were that she did and how we have a new King. It was amazing to be part of this moment in history and we loved being able to go on an adventure at a different part of the day.

Today the Preschoolers headed down to the National Museum of Australia. Upon arrival we headed straight into Connections where we heard amazing music and looked at some beautiful artwork done by Australian Indigenous artists. Once we were finished we continued to explore the rest of the museum where we found the new discovery play space!