Seedlings & Co Calamvale

Welcome to Seedlings & Co Calamvale, family owned and managed by caring and dedicated professionals. We have architecturally designed spaces that are continuously evolving with innovative ideas and resources. We believe incorporating nature, cultural diversity and sustainable practices into our learning spaces enhance and enrich the learning experience of our seedlings and their families.

We offer a blend of endless learning opportunities through the pedagogy of nature, both indoors, outdoors and beyond. We believe nurturing through nature creates a place of discovery, a sense of wonder and a yearning for learning. We strive to create an environment where families feel comfortable, feel they belong, feel they can contribute where families feel comfortable, a sense of belonging, a wondrous home.

The journey to nature play

Obstacles we have encountered and overcome
Here at Seedlings & Co Calamvale we have made changes to our Centre philosophy and are now incorporating Nature play and sustainable practices into our everyday play-based learning as part of our pedagogy. Our greatest challenge as educators was to embrace the natural environment holistically and encourage our team, families and local business to help us re-use, reduce and recycle. It required us to think deeply about how we incorporate nature into all our activities and re-evaluate our program to reflect the philosophy we believe offers the best opportunities to children. Our philosophy upholds the belief that the environment is a child’s third teacher, we therefore provide children with the opportunity to explore and develop an understanding of the natural environment and encourage them to care for the environment and embrace it’s endless learning opportunities. We implement this practice by opening our doors and inviting the seedlings to engage in indoor and outdoor play, utilize our bush area for a variety of activities and exploration. Our Pre-prep seedlings enjoy regular excursions to the local bush area as part of their kindergarten program.

Benefits for the children and achievements so far!

As Educators it is our priority to build confidence, emotional wellbeing and develop fine and gross motor skills to prepare our seedlings to flourish. As children begin to explore in the outdoor forest area, they are engaging in social interactions, learning team building skills, building on core strength while balancing and climbing. We have witnessed the development of language skills, wonderful friendships and watched in delight as children create their own games and are fascinated by insects and the use of microscopes.

During this time, the seedlings have been finding creative ways to use twigs, rocks, and leaves for developing their early numeracy skills, sensory and imaginative play.

We have introduced natural and recycled materials into our craft activities and our seedlings have been keen to explore different types of natural materials and loose parts. Our craft activities are often inspired by dream time stories or topics of interest. Recently, they created a volcano from natural materials, this activity provided children the opportunity to direct a project they were passionate about and were able to see how versatile natural products could be.

What our Centre’s Team have achieved!

Having Nature Play introduced to our programming has been a significant change to the environment and roles of our educators. It has required us to think holistically about the daily program in order to provide spaces and opportunities for children that make the most of our natural environment, regardless of weather. We have built on our existing knowledge by engaging in professional development that continue to seek out research and best practice. As a result of this learning and understanding we have been able to build on new goals each week to progressively achieve our desired implementation of Nature play.

Moving forward into the future!

At Seedlings & Co. our vision is to create a community that not only embraces nature for all its benefits, both physically and mentally, but starts the important conversation around how we as human beings reduce the impact we have on the environment through sustainable practices and work together to reduce, re-use and recycle to preserve the teacher that is mother nature.