SHOUT OUT TO THE WORLD

 

The Bluebell group has decided to establish a waste processing company aka Recycling center. First, we learned about what is in the recycling center. OK, a truck was a little too much for us but that didn't discourage our plans. Although, we did not choose the director, we collected garbage for days and sorted it into specially made containers. We were busy bees. But, it wasn't enough. The adults didn’t hear us so we decided to shout our messages to the world. Well, we did make some noise because after our activism they heard us and our recycling center started to make a profit. We started to make new things from discarded things, for example, a mailbox is a box of chips. The old planks served us as a counter, and now we are already thinking about using it for a theater. Reuse, reduce, recycle is our new slogan. Long live the three R'S!

VETERNICA CAVE AND THE BEAR

 

The early inhabitants of Zagreb, Neanderthal hunters of the Mousterian culture, worshiped the cult of the cave bear, who frequently lived in the cave Veternica.

Younger children, studying Veternica, discovered that it was once inhabited by bears. The bear no longer lives on Medvednica, but Medvednica is still full of wildlife. While our older friends were studying bats we made bear suits and a bear den. We wanted to woke bear with a song, but we failed. The bear was hibernating so we left him to sleep until spring.

VETERNICA CAVE AND THE BATS

 

Medvednica Nature Park is a recognizable part of the city of Zagreb and Veternica Cave is a famous cave inhabited by bats in winter. Bats are a protected species and we wanted to find out more about them. We studied encyclopedias and learned that there are all of sizes and that they are not dangerous at all.

We were interested in how they fly so we made their wings and found out they have a finger that is helping them to sleep upside down. It's preety strong finger for such a small animal.

Everyone painted their bat, and after that we put them in the Veternica cave, which we decorated with photos. Caves are dark places, so we studied ours with lamp, just like real speleologists.

Even though many would choose the wide-open spaces of Medvednica over its dark and chilly underground, Veternica Cave merits a visit for many reasons!

With more than seven kilometers of branching canals, Veternica is the sixth cave in Croatia by size, and has constantly been growing in length through the discoveries of Zagreb speleologists. But “common” tourists can also, with the expert guide, visit the first 380 meters of the cave and explore some of its secrets.

For its overall values Veternica was protected as a geomorphological nature monument in 1979.

MEDVEDNICA

 

Medvednica is a mountain in central Croatia, just north of Zagreb. The highest peak, at 1,035 m is Sljeme. The most significant phenomenon of the Medvednica Nature Park are forests, which cover 81% of the park surface.

Mount Medvednica is a very rare example of a nature park merging with a capital city. You can see those majestic green hills from any corner of the city. They are like a beacon gracing the northern skyline. The city and its mountain have a long history together. Medvednica has been a rock to Zagreb, always having its back against enemies and cold winds.

Hiking on Medvednica is one of the favourite pastimes for Zagreb locals. They flock there to enjoy the fresh air, hang out with friends and admire fantastic views of Zagreb. Of course, all that combined with simple but unbeatable home-cooked food.

You leave the noise behind and enter the enchanting woodland with plenty of mysteries waiting to be discovered.

The children know Medvednica very well. That is why it was not difficult for us to imagine its nearness to the city of Zagreb, its trails, waterfalls and everything that makes Medvednica a symbol of our history and of contemporary life style.

HEAL THE WORLD

 We read a story called “Hello, Mr. World” and decided to form a doctors’ center. Children made hats out of old plates and used old shirts to create doctors’ coats. Inspired by the story, we decided that we should heal the World. Children imitated the story’s characters and followed its plot, all the while pondering what each of us can do for the planet. We studied the different kinds of waste and learned about proper waste disposal and sorting. While there are paper and plastic bins in our room, they would quickly get filled up, so we’d make a trip to the neighboring “Green Island” and empty them into the appropriate containers. 

While reading the story, we encountered concepts such as flood and tornadoes. Children did not know about the latter, so we decided to do a little experiment and create a bottled tornado. The children were so amazed by it that they wanted to see a real tornado, a want which was satisfied by showing them educational videos about tornadoes. They were both fascinated and scared, but the latter wasn’t a problem when we explained to them that there are no tornadoes in our country.

MUSIC INSTRUMENTS

 

Our group spends a lot of time singing. Apart from that, we also wanted to play some musical instruments, but we didn’t have a music center. This wasn’t a challenge; we simply formed one and made the instruments ourselves. We started with something simple – making rattles. They were made from boxes of kinder eggs, old wire tubes and pebbles. Children filled the boxes and tubes with pebbles before decorating them with tape. Teachers helped the children to string old keys, rings, and branches together to make even more rattles. We also made drums out of old flower jars, old cans, and tablecloths. Broom handles proved useful for making percussion instruments. Parents stepped in to help by cutting the handles into segments of equal length and sanding them. We plan on making a workshop where children and their parents will be able to paint and decorate them so that every child can recognize their own unique instrument. Children had a lot of fun exploring the many different sounds their makeshift instruments could make and enjoyed all the games and songs we performed with them.

REUSE, REDUCE, RECYCLE

 

Nature conservation starts with healthy habits in one’s own home or kindergarten – the places where children spend most of their time. Therefore, we have attempted to teach the children the little things we can do to help our big planet.

We developed environmental awareness in the children and we taught them the importance of nature conservation such as collecting and disposing of waste in our yard, proper waste sorting and reuse of waste according to the principle of REUSE, REDUCE and RECYCLE.