# data[].attributes.body
Written by Debora Frenkel and illustrated by Ingrid Bartkowiak

I chose the reading of this story as a resource as the story encourages its listeners to look to find the beauty of nature that are hidden in Plain sight.

This resource is a support for further outdoor creative exploration, viewing the environment in different ways. It can be used for one on one, small or large group times with children, ready by a teacher or room educator. The story links to EYLF outcomes 2 community, as it encourages children to notice and explore the outdoor world in which they live.

·      The book – Naturopolis, is also accompanied by activity resources of the same theme of nature, environment and community.

The resource is a worksheet checklist for a nature scavenger hunt. Noticing nature in the local environment.

Again, this is a recourse that can be sued in a number of early years settings.
https://dnofvw1k3gl36.cloudfront.net/8090/Activity-Time_Naturopolis.pdf

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Among the steel and stone canyons of the city, nature flourishes in tiny, tenacious ways. Follow the ant (Iridomyrmex purpureus) to discover the scraps of wilderness hiding in plain sight in this lyrical celebration of urban flora and fauna.
Naturopolis is a wonderful acknowledgement of the unseen, and the world that awaits the viewer, eager to connect with nature. You don't have to go far to find what is waiting for us beneath our feet.

Written by Deborah Frenkel, illustrated by Ingrid Bartkowiak and read by Peter Houghton.

Download the 2023 Children's Book Week educator resources for this story.

Credits

Suitable for

Duration

09:03

Reading Challenges

Awards

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Among the steel and stone canyons of the city, nature flourishes in tiny, tenacious ways. Follow the ant (Iridomyrmex purpureus) to discover the scraps of wilderness hiding in plain sight in this lyrical celebration of urban flora and fauna. Naturopolis is a wonderful acknowledgement of the unseen, and the world that awaits the viewer, eager to connect with nature.

# data[].attributes.body
This resource can be played as background listening during free play or purposefully at quiet rest times for children to enjoy moments of solitude (DET, 2022).

This recording from the ABC network includes many different species sounds in it. Exposing children to different animals, insects and sounds of flora.

This resource connects with the theme of nature, environment and natural elements such as rain and wind sounds.

The sound allows children to connect to the outdoor environment, especially if the early learning space is in a city setting.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
No music, no voices, just imagine you're camping beside a creek in early spring.
Listening Notes from Ann:
It was the first hot day of Spring on Wadawurrung Country west of Melbourne. Out of bed before the sun, I walked through the bush listening to the last of the nocturnal sounds, and found a place on a ridgeline overlooking a creek.

There are hundreds of large trees with lots of hollows all scattered across the steep slope down to the creek and I set the recorders out just as the dawn chorus begins in earnest. There is the smallest of overlap between the boobooks calling as they settled to sleep, and the magpies and kookaburras leading the dawn chorus with their greetings to the sun (and territorial threatening screams of course).

There are so, so many species in this recording - too many to list entirely!

00:00:16 The boobook calls. Listen for a second boobook, who calls at 00:00:48, with a slightly different pitch. In the middle of the night, you can hear the boobooks call right along the creek.

00:01:00 Raucous and loud - a family of kookaburras laughs in chorus. They're communicating with each other and their neighbouring rivals that they're awake, and fit, and ready to defend their territory today.

00:07:50 Hear a kangaroo stomping and rustling in the grass and sticks probably heading down the hill to find a cosy spot in the lomandra to sleep for the day.

00:10:20 It's as if they all knew it was going to be a clear, warm day - everyone is singing and calling this morning. What a cacophony!

00:21:40 Sulphur Crested Cockatoos rarely go anywhere without announcing themselves.

00:23:48 The penetrating, rapid fire pipe of the white throated tree creeper repeats itself. These birds possess special feet that enable them to spend their life bouncing up tree trunks searching for insects, rather than grasping onto horizontal branches.

00:26:50 The sound of several pardalotes can be heard throughout the recording with their repetitive stutter note - dik-dik... dik-dik. There are both striated and spotted pardalotes in this recording and there are several nests in the area in tiny little hollows in the trees as well as miniscule little burrows dug into the sides of the track and creek.

00:37:30 Ravens. It's notoriously difficult to tell the difference between raven species between calls, and I've seen both Australasian Ravens and Little Ravens at this spot. But, I do think these are little ravens, because there are so so so many of them. They're all up and down the creek line communicating with each other with varying intensity and little ravens have a tendency to gather like this.

00:39:20 This is a Shining bronze cuckoo a small bird that looks like it has a slightly spiky hair do and wears a stripey t shirt. Even though it's wings are sort of iridescent, moving from olive green to eggplant purple, this small bird is inconspicuous and stays hidden in trees searching for caterpillars, sex and someone else's nest to lay in.

00:42:45 The Australian Magpie's ability to sing that many notes at once will always astound me. In this part of Australia, the magpies are white backed magpies and even though they've got babies in the area, they've not been swoopy.

00:44:00 In these ten seconds I can hear: little raven, two types of pardalotes, red wattlebird, grey shrike thrush and a baby magpie, common eastern froglets and there's also a bird that has a descending whistle that I can't quite place.

00:45:02 here is a baby magpie annoying its parents for food. They're almost ALWAYS hungry.

00:45:20 A mix of long-billed corellas and sulphur crested cockatoos in this group. There are several really big old holey trees here and I think some of them have several nesting hollows in each.

00:46:45 Extremely high-pitched melodic call of the grey fantail, darting about waggling it's tail and scowling.

00:47:45 The repeated single note of the Eastern Spinebill, which has a long skinny downward turned beak especially for getting delicious liquid from flowers. They dart about everywhere making wing flurries and generally being high on sugar as far as I can tell.

00:50:20 The Grey Shrike thrush is calling - these birds are possibly one of the most common mystery sounds' we get sent over at Off Track. They look as though they're a bird drawing in grey scale, with the smoothest looking plumage and a little hook on the end of the beak. They sing like angels from hiding places, and can sometimes put on a real performance.

00:52:12 Magpie parents have the patience of a million kindergarten teachers combined.

00:54:20 Mixed in with the gorgeous magpie calling there are grey shrike thrush, rosella flight calls, Olive backed orioles, cockatoos, ravens, pardalotes, froglets. And, at 00:54:04 I *think* one of the magpies flies away - you can hear its wings in the air.

00:56:30 Rosella calls - could be crimson or eastern - though crimson are more likely in the area. And over the next minute they start bell calling to each other... which is lovely, except for that cockie making spewing screams over the top of everything.

00:58:55 Is that a brown thornbill?

01:05:20 As the parent gets closer the baby magpie's calls change?

01:05:20 I haven't worked out what those low grunts are - some are rhythmic, some are longer. Is it a kookaburra with a sore throat? A baby kookaburra complaining about its accommodation? A possum being angry at a cockatoo? If you have an idea leave a comment!

01:12:20 The call of a Pallid cuckoo is like a slowly ascending set of peeps. This is one of those birds which lays its eggs in the nest of another species and leaves them to bring up the kids.

00:18:15 A rufous whistler calling out amongst the din - listen for relatively quick sliding whistles, almost whip-like, that sometimes are repetitive and other times sound like mosh pit madness with many notes thrown together jumping all over the place.

00:19:26 A juvenile raven is getting its breakfast. That's the sound of the regurgitated food going down its gullet! And, judging by those extremely quiet ticks, someone has landed very close to the microphone and is moving in the tree (my guess is a rosella, they click and crack in trees all day and it's often this sound that gives them away rather than their calls). AND, this is followed closely by a pied currawong in the distance.

01:20:52 A Superb fairy-wren with an extremely high-pitched call that gets faster like a golf ball circling a hole until it blasts off into manic neighing like the tiniest horse in the world. There's also, I think, that weird kookaburra calls going on in this patch. I'm not sure.

01:23:21 Hear that kookaburra carrying on?

01:28:30 You can tell that day is well and truly underway and the temperature is rising, because that insect chorus starts pulsating. It also signals the end of the dawn chorus - from boobook to cicada.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
No music, no voices, just imagine you're camping beside a creek in early spring.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a helpful link for Teachers to use to gain information on the benefits and tips for creating a successful bush kinder program, it includes also includes further downloadable resources within the page.
Bush kinder is a great way for children to connect and feel a sense of belonging wit the world around them.
Running a bush kinder program delivers the benefits of the natural learning environment to all children in an equitable way. Given that, aspects of bush kinder are also possible to implement into the kindergarten yard.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Bush Kindergarten

Kids love the outdoors - it helps them learn, to build a sense of belonging and to grow into healthy and happy young adults. With their wild imaginations and curious minds, a natural space becomes a new world to explore, run, climb and play in.

Spending regular time in nature through a Bush Kinder program helps children to fall in love with, care for and create life-long connections with their local landscapes.

How to start a Bush Kindergarten

Parks Victoria manages an extensive network of parks, reserves and waterways. These protected places serve a range of purposes, from protecting the natural and cultural environment to providing recreational opportunities, so it's important to find a park that suits your needs but respects our special places.

The spaces most suited for regular outdoor learning are metropolitan parks, regional parks and visitor sites within national and state parks. Wilderness parks and nature conservation reserves are primarily reserved for the protection of significant plants and animals and in some cases, may not be suitable for regular visitation.

Rangers know their patch inside out, so undertaking an initial scoping and induction session is the best way to identify a safe and accessible site that meets both of your needs. Call 13 1963 or email education@parks.vic.gov.au to ask for recommendations on suitable locations from a ranger in your area. You can also use our Bush Kinder Handbook (found in the resources list below) to help you design your program so that you tread lightly during your time outdoors and know who to contact for more information.

Registering your Bush Kindergarten online

ParkConnect is Parks Victoria's online database for emergency management and visitor communication. You can let us know you'll be visiting with your kinder by registering your visit schedule through the Bush Kinder Activity Plan on ParkConnect.

Registering at least one month in advance helps us to better understand your planned visit(s) and keep you safe by organising a coordinated emergency management response with local ranger teams and government departments if required. User guides are available on the ParkConnect Education page if you need help with setting up a ParkConnect teacher account or submitting your plan.

Resources

The following resources may help with planning or provide inspiration for your Bush Kinder program:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Spending regular time in nature through a Bush Kinder program helps children to fall in love with, care for and create life-long connections with their local landscapes.

# data[].attributes.body
Fitting with the theme of what the natural learning environment can offer us, we explore its more biological side and search for bugs and insects.

This recourse is a task for children to explore their natural environments around them. it is age appropriate and It can be done in kindergarten yards, a great resource to take on a busy kinder day or excursion, even a resource to send home with children so they can further explore their own back yards.

Exploring the yards during changing seasons of the year will also affect our findings.

# data[].attributes.body
Just add water paint blocks are a great way for children to creatively express what they see around them.

They are age appropriate for children and allow them to explore with cause and effect and the process of painting rather than the end result, using this open-ended resource.

This experience can be set up as tabletop, to encourage group social interactions and language skills. Or as an outdoor picnic painting set up, with children using the natural environment around them as reference and inspiration.

As the paints require only water and dry out after adding, they are long lasting and sustainable choice.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This long lasting poster paint is both convenient and easy to use. Colours are inter-mixable and can be refilled as required. Available in the following set colours: Cool, Earth, Warm & Fluro. Each palette contains 6 colour discs and measures 17.5 x 11.3 x 2.3cm.

Disc size: 4.5cm (dia) x 1.5cm (H).

This product does not contain egg, gluten and/or dairy.

MTA Teachers Resource Catalogue Page: 19

MTA Early Years Catalogue Page: 19

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Poster Paint Colour Earth Palette - MTA Catalogue

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Earth palette poster paint includes 6 discs of red, yellows, browns and a grey. Easy to clean. Mix with water to create a liquid paint.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a recourse that can be used to have on display for children’s creative inspiration and a place to explore different versions of art and express curiosity.

Through this children can also explore cultural art and points of view. linking to the Early years learning framework, children notice and recognise different cultures.