Open Book Badge for August

Welcome to the READING MONTH of August!!!!

This month we are giving all the Girl Guides the opportunity of working towards their Open Book Badge.  We have a whole list of fun and exciting activities to keep you busy over the month.


There are 3 MUST DO activities that include taking part in Reading Hour on Saturday, 25 August, finding your favourite recipe for our very first Karana Downs Girl Guides Cookbook and reading and becoming a member of this blog page ( which is so easy since you are right here now reading this ).


We have a collection of other activities that should keep you very busy over the month.  There are even two free choice spots on the sheet for you to make up your own reading fun.


Enjoy completing the Open Book Badge and we can't hear about how you are going with them.  Please let either of us know through here or come up and tell us.


HAPPY READING,


Tahlee and Helen

Let the games begin!!!

KDGG is beginning it's own Olympics this week, and the preparations are well underway.  Teams have chosen their names, developed their flags, chosen their team colours and practised their war cries.

Go teams!!!

Finishing our Nature Badge - Nature Air Mail Project

To complete our Nature badge, we participated in the Nature Air Mail Project, contributing to the future display by local artist Tricia Smout who is the 2012 Artist in Residence at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens at Mt Cootha. (Make sure you catch the exhibition at the end of the year and see if you can find our work within it!)

Im sure you'll agree, the girls work was excellent!

Nature Badge - Food Chains

Learn about food chains using this fun, interactive game.  Remember, we don’t have squirrels in Australia, but we do have foxes, (many live here in the outskirts of Brisbane) which were brought to Australia from Europe with the early settlers.  (See below to learn more about the problems foxes cause in Australia)

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/gamesactivities/foodchains.html

Foxes eat native plants and animals and compete with native animals which would need the same food to live or space to safely raise their young.  Can you think with what native animals foxes may compete?

Find out more about foxes in Australia through these links:

http://www.thefoxwebsite.org/populations/australia.html

http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/documents/Biosecurity_EnvironmentalPests/IPA-Fox-PA13.pdf

Have your own copy of Pest patrol, an activity book (with teachers’ resource)

http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/documents/Biosecurity_EnvironmentalPests/IPA-Pest-Patrol-Activity-Book-Complete.pdf

This brings us to the end of our Nature Badge blog for this term.  Until then... all the best.

Message from Wootoo:

Don't forget to be working on your nature badge.  (For the girls to earn the badge they need to have completed at least 10 of the ideas on front/back of the nature badge sheet).

Nature Badge - Habitats

As a part of our nature badge work, we have been looking at nature around us, and seeing what lives there, and how healthy the environment is.

The area which is home for a certain type of plant or animal is also known as its habitat.

(For example, in your home, you could say that your room is your “habitat”, even if you share it with a brother or a sister).  

There are many different habitats across Australia.  Can you think of the names of some of them? You probably have heard of “Rainforest” before.  We have some beautiful rainforests here in Australia.  Here are some Queensland examples:

Dense Rainforest in Tamborine National Park:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wl040QMsyM

Daintree Rainforest Footage by Australian Geographic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj0MBLHdKNk

Explore seven different habitats at the Australian Museum website:

http://australianmuseum.net.au/Wild-Kids-Habitats

The Queensland Museum website is always worth a visit, and helps us understand more about different habitats relevant to our world in their “Wild backyards” online resource.

We challenge you to investigate all three at:

http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/microsites/wild/wild-backyards.asp

Wildlife and habitats are under threat, learn more at:

http://www.wwf.org.au/our_work/saving_the_natural_world/wildlife_and_habitats/

But don’t despair!  Help our native plants and wildlife by creating a habitat for them in your own back yard!

Create a habitat for frogs thanks to ideas from Frogs Australia Network:

http://frogsaustralia.net.au/conservation/creating-habitat.cfm

Further resources to creating backyard wildlife habitats are available at:

http://www.australian-backyard-wildlife.com/
until next time when we look at food chains...
Karana Downs Rocks!!

Nature Badge 2012

Welcome back!!!

In support of your work on your nature badge, we are once again using our blog to explore our world and share our thoughts and experiences.  Join, comment, and even post your own content and photo's here on our blog.

This month, our blog explores the variety of plants and animals we find in nature, our Great Barrier Reef, and an amazing animal, (not to be found in Australian waters) the Giant Octopus.  We also learn about food chains, and look at an introduced pest and it’s impact on Australia.  We look at habitats including our own backyards, and learn more about plants and animals.  Enjoy!

Images from David Attenborough’s Planet Earth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7crV89ZZ_yc

Plant and animal differences

Learn about the variety of life on our earth:

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/gamesactivities/plantanimaldif.html

Our very own Great Barrier Reef is teeming with both plant and animal life. 

Learn about our amazing natural resource in this video:

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/videos/nature/greatbarrierreef.html

People have long been fascinated by creatures of the sea, and there have been many movies about some of those which frighten us, such as the giant octopus. 

Yes, they do exist (but not in Australian waters) and are amazing creatures.  View them at: http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/videos/animals/giantoctopus.html

Learn more about these incredible invertebrates at:

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/giant-pacific-octopus/

But DO NOT WATCH THIS IF YOU ARE EASILY SCARED!!  Giant octopus v shark:

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/animals/invertebrates-animals/octopus-and-squid/octopus_giant_kills_shark/

 which leads to our next edition on habitats… until then,

Karana Downs Rocks!!!

Cooking blinis using recycled cans

Reducing, Re-using and Recycling can be fun!  Check out the photo showing how we cooked Russian blinis using recycled cans brought in from home.  Each of us had a chance of cooking our mini pancakes, a yummy afternoon tea!  Whilst some of us were cooking with Wootoo and Kinta, the rest of us were playing our games "without power or stuff" with our regular parent helper Paula and Jen's mum Jo, who was helping out with Thinking Day.