Merri Creek August 30th

We had an absolutely fantastic visit to Merri Creek on Thursday.  We were very lucky with the weather again, the rain held off until well into the afternoon and we were able to enjoy the sunshine.  

Last week we negotiated some slightly larger boundaries so our area now extends up to the edge of the velodrome.  The kids took great advantage of this new hill, and spent a lot of time initially rolling, running and jumping down it.

This led to a lot of wondering and hypothesizing about the forces at work, as well as other interesting phenomena that they found.  

"I was wondering why when you roll down the hill it’s really fast.  I know it’s steep when you’re running, but I don’t know why it’s fast when you’re rolling."

"I was wondering why when you roll a little bit sideways and a little bit down you go slower, and when you go straight you go faster."

"When I went straight down on the hill, I didn’t move, when I was pointing down the bottom of the hill I was wondering why I didn’t move."

"I found a pattern."

"I was doing some bush art. When I first started digging and I used the smaller end of my stick, and it just didn’t draw on dirt but when I used the big stick it did."

            Why do you think that was?

"Because the little end is delicate and the big end is not delicate."

"I was wondering why the sticks had spots on them."

"It might be dead"

"Because it's sick of too much water"

"To protect it and to pretend they’re dead when they’re really alive."

          

"I found a tree that was black and I thought there was a bushfire, and I found some stink bugs in them."

"They’re really called harlequin beetles but we call them stink beetles."

We also found a strange substance in the trunk of an old tree.  It was soft, and crumbled if it was handled roughly.  Various children thought it might be old or rotten, or "something that bugs need". We noticed it was similar to a piece of fungus growing on the same tree stump but softer and lighter in color.

Thank you to Joanna who came along with us this week.  We really love and need our parent helpers, and it is always a lovely morning so we would be thrilled to have you along.