Monday, February 4, 2013

Exploring Hinze Dam



After all of the recent rain it was the perfect time to visit Hinze Dam, the spillway is well and truly spilling over!


This is our first visit to Hinze Dam as a family and the first time the children have seen a dam wall on any such scale.


Inside the visitor centre there is a collection of displays, many focus on the recent rising of the dam wall.


Everyone found this interesting, step closer to the map and it shows the river dammed, step away and you can see how the river looked prior to building the dam wall.


The cycle of water within the dam catchment, as she peddled it turned revealing the cycle.



The visitor centre also houses a small cafe, we didn't purchase anything so I'm not too sure if they do full meals or only snacks. The seating area, however has a glorious view overlooking the Waterside Picnic area and the dam.




Heading down towards the water you can't help but be enthralled by the modern architecture of the visitor centre.


The large circular grassed area, what they designate as a picnic area, is perfect for cartwheels! Not sure how perfect it is for picnics? No trees, tables, chairs, BBQ's or the like!






This area was quarried for the materials needed to raise the dam wall.


Lots of lovely spots for family snapshots.


Closer to the waters edge stands this small enclosure with limited seating space. It is very much in keeping with the design of the visitor centre.


And boasts beautiful views of the dam and surrounding landscape.



Heading back towards the visitor centre we needed to cross back over the grassed picnic area. Little Surfer Dude realised he could get a bit of an echo happening from the visitor centre.


We drove the few hundred metres down to the spillway lookout. That's one pretty spectacular water slide and super noisy too boot!





I couldn't resist one last shot of these guys, can't believe how grown up they are looking.



Tuesday, January 22, 2013

World Wide Wanderings: Japan Wrap Up



We wrapped up our Japan Unit by all coming together to complete the lapbooks with all of the little bits and pieces the kids had been working on.



Designing the covers for their lapbooks. The only requirement here was that the cover image at least had to relate to Japan in some way. They ended up with maps, some Mt Fuji scenes, sushi, flags and carp fish.


Most of the kids have never completed a lapbook before and it's been awhile for my kids too, so doing it all together was a good exercise for them.


The covers from my kids lapbooks


And the inside finished pieces. We may add a couple of photographs, especially of the crafts they did since they won't fit inside a lapbook.


Look how proud they all are of their finished work, grins from ear to ear!

For something special, we took the kids out to a sushi train, they loved it and it got them trying even more sushi varieties too!






My Japan Board on Pinterest
Mini Booklets from Homeschool Share







  • Countries Visited By Continent
                 Asia
                       Japan

              South America




Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Sketch Tuesday - Robots - Our First Time

Have you seen Sketch Tuesday?

Each Tuesday a new theme is posted, everyone has a week to complete their sketches and send them in.

Just for fun! Just for the love of drawing!

We are hoping to participate this year, although it may not be every single week.

This week the theme was 'Robots'.


It's interesting to marvel at the differences and similarities between the children's drawings. The yellow robot is actually quite small,


Whereas, even though yellow in colour, this guy fills the entire page.

Delicate fingers for lots of grabbing on this robot come martian.


Visit Sketch Tuesday to see loads more!

Sketch tuesday










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