25 September 2025
Wonder walks to the Botanical Gardens
It is not half so important to know as to feel… Once the emotions have been aroused – a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and the unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration or love – then we wish for knowledge about the object of our emotional response. Once found, it has lasting meaning. It is more important to pave the way for the child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts he or she is not ready to assimilate. — Rachel Carson
Curiosity, creativity and critical thinking are the strategies children use to learn. This term we encouraged these dispositions through weekly wonder walks to the Adelaide Botanical Gardens. These walks expanded our curriculum planning back in the ELC. Educators intentionally looked for opportunities to embed literacy, numeracy and the School’s values of respect and service into the walks and subsequent learning. The Mulberry Tree Room has been researching how we show Ngaitalya/respect at the gardens. Fig Tree has pondered the potential of a puddle. Peppercorn’s imagination has taken them on wild adventures through the eyes of dragonflies, frogs and turtles.
On Saturday 13 September the boys shared their learning and excitement with their families, participating in a ‘GooseChase’ treasure hunt of experiences around the gardens.
Beyond the curriculum, the research proves embodied and outdoor experiences are essential to child wellbeing and cognition, these walks have gifted the boys a lasting sense of wonder and connection with our world.
Holly Baulderstone
Head of Early Years
