Posted October 2020
By Natasha Mackle, Nursery Educator, KU Wonnayba Children’s Centre
At the start of the year during the height of COVID-19, we were noticing how our environment was changing. The nursery/toddler children noticed more birds frequenting our yard, the wattle trees bloomed earlier than normal, and due to the lack of traffic, we were hearing frogs returning to our gardens. We received a donation of two bird baths and thought we would mosaic them to celebrate NAIDOC Week and provide water for our friendly magpies, kookaburras and rainbow lorikeets.
One bird bath was to host the designs of a tree frog, wattle, and a lilly pad representing the Aboriginal flag, as the children had already recognised these items in the environment through nature walks through the University grounds.
The other bird bath was to go in the preschool yard. When I asked the children what design they would like to see on it, they decided on a turtle swimming in the ocean due to their interest in sea creatures.
We will be adding the bird baths to the yard in the coming weeks. The children are eagerly awaiting the birds to start drinking from them.
We show respect by honouring the land on which we congregate on daily – through caring for the land, the animals and the paths which we walk upon. Always was, always will be.