Cultural awareness day

Friday March 1st saw NLC staff and committee, along with their children, gather at Rosa Brook to participate in a three hour cultural awareness workshop run by Zac and Rachelle from the Undalup Association.

We’ll let the visuals tell some of our stories from the day. It was an amazing experience for all involved and we look forward to many further cultural awareness days into the future. Thank you Zac and Rachelle for sharing some of your beautiful, sustainable, environment focused and story telling rich culture…you left us wanting to learn so much more from you.

A big thank you to Augusta Margaret River Shire for granting the Natural Learning Centre (NLC) funds to make this opportunity possible.

A reclaimed cupboard...a RE Cupboard!

First a cupboard…then a shed…and eventually… a bigger, purpose created space…
From small things, big things can most definitely grow!

We are at the start of our recycling journey with our RE Cupboard…RE for recycle, RE for reuse, RE for revive…just part of Natural Learning Centre’s sustainability vision and varied programs.

The children love helping to sort all those small recycled loose parts rescued from landfill (or washed up on the beach)…and they are so often used creatively in new REloved NLC projects.

Loving loose parts

Materials that can be moved around, taken apart and put back together in different ways are called Loose Parts. Invitations to play that incorporate loose parts have no specific set of directions or one ‘right’ way…they are open ended and can be used alone or combined with other materials. Play incorporating Loose Parts supports problem solving, creative thinking and often a sense of wonder for children.

NLC loves loose parts!

“Children do not live – as many still believe – in a mythical and pre-intellectual dimension, but they are capable of constructing thoughts and reflections because knowledge is with them, right from birth, in the heart of life itself. Children, above all when together with other children, are inventors, “safecrackers”, and re-builders of theories and behaviours that elude any presumptuousness or predictability of methods. Children do not wait for our permission to think. Indeed, children are bursting with ideas that are always impatient to escape through language (and we say a hundred languages) to connect and communicate with the things of the world.” - Loris Malaguzzi

Environment inspired, interest driven learning

It makes a lot of sense to take into account our environment, the seasons and the interests of the children we work with…and it’s fascinating (and meaningful) to track the changes that take place in the environments we regularly spend time in week in week out, particularly those wonderful, wild spaces…forests, oceans, rivers, wetlands…

Natural Learning Centre aims to provide children and the wider community with opportunities to interact responsibly and consciously within our natural environments…to foster a deep, lifelong love, connection and respect for nature and each other.

“Let Nature be your teacher.” – William Wordsworth

Creating a natural brand involving children

The Natural Learning Centre promotes inclusion and making the most of opportunities. Some of the children in our groups were keen to get involved with the decisions and art work that inspired our final Natural Learning Centre logo and branding…

The photographs show some of the process before our wonderful graphic designer and NLC committee member Tanya Edwards continued to work her magic and finalise our designs.