Early Years
The Early Years program at Edendale encourages and inspires your young learners to build connections to the natural world.
Similar in philosophy to a bush kinder program, we use the farm as our outdoor classroom, providing rich provocations for the children through fun, hands-on and play-based activities.
Our Early Years experiences help to meet learning outcomes of the VEYLDF and EYLF, particularly Outcomes 2 (Children are connected with and contribute to their world) and 3 (Children have a strong sense of wellbeing)
Teachers and educators can also reflect on Edendale’s environmental education experiences as they work towards Element 3.2.3 of the National Quality Standards (NQS) – ‘The service cares for the environment and supports children to become environmentally responsible.
Farm Tour
A guided walk around Edendale with a focus on what farms produce for humans. Children will be able to feed and/or pat the chickens, guinea pigs, sheep and goats, meet our hard-working worms. Our alpacas and ponies are also part of the tour.
Minibeasts (invertebrates)
A Bug’s Life
Children learn about the roles of different minibeasts in the environment, including their lifecycles and how they depend on their environment (and sometimes each other) to survive. This activity includes minibeasts such as spiny leaf insects, composting worms, waterbugs from the farm dam, bees and the Eltham Copper Butterfly (a local endangered species).
Eltham Copper Butterfly
Children learn about this endangered local species (including why it’s endangered), its habitat and very interesting lifecycle through a combination of storytelling, drama and a dress-up parade of eggs, ants, caterpillars and butterflies.
Waste not
Children are introduced to the concepts of Rethink, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. They become waste champions, helping a family who is struggling to separate their waste into the correct bins (and also keeping some items out of the bins altogether!) – in doing so, reducing waste going to landfill. This is a fun and hands-on sorting activity with clean rubbish props and also covers recycling food waste via compost and worm farms. The activity ends with a recycle relay to reinforce their learnings.
Grow Your Own
Children will have the opportunity to explore the Edendale veggie gardens, learning about the different parts of vegetable plants we can eat and how different plants grow depending on the time of the year. They will learn about what a plant needs to grow, and plant a veggie seed in a little biodegradable pot to take home with them. The activity is designed to engage children in learning about where their food comes from, and why it helps the environment if we grow some of our own.
Environmental art
Edendale’s art teachers lead the children in activities that use recycled and repurposed objects, as well as materials from the natural world, including:
Calico Bag Prints
Create a colourful print on a calico drawstring bag to take home with them, using fresh flowers and foliage from the farm and local gardens.
Sculptural Junk
Use repurposed materials to make arty creatures and figures (this activity can be linked to a specific topic such as minibeasts or the farm).
Wonderful Worms
Explore the amazing life of the compost worm. Activities include visiting Edendale’s various worm farms, up-close observation of worms, learning about their needs and life cycle and the importance of worms in reducing reducing organic waste going to landfill.
Buzzing Around
Through dance, story, observation and play, children discover how honeybees live their busy lives. Using play-based learning and drama, they learn about how bees collect nectar and pollen, make wax and honey, pollinate flowers, the different roles of bees in a hive and how they communicate with each other using the “waggle dance”. We also introduce children to some of Australia’s native bees, and their important roles as pollinators in the local environment.
Habitat Heroes
What is “habitat”, and what does an animal need in a home? What other creatures call Edendale and its surrounds their home? What is an indigenous plant, and why is it great to plant them? Visit our indigenous plant nursery and discover that different plants can help to attract butterflies, bees, birds and frogs to your garden. And what else we can provide in our gardens particularly to provide shelter for local species (eg rocks, legs, habitat boxes, insect hotels)?
Tailoring to you
We specialise in working with you to ensure our programs support your specific environmental education needs. Ask us if what you are learning about isn't specifically covered in our listed programs.
2025 Excursion prices
- Prices per student, minimum group size of 15 children.
- Each activity runs for approximately 50 minutes.
- Our activities are fun, hands on and experiential and can be adapted specifically to your needs.
- Many groups combine their Edendale excursion with a picnic / play at the Eltham North Adventure Playground, a short walk from our Northern gate.
Length of visit |
Number of activities |
Price per child incl GST |
Min. cost incl GST |
1 hour |
1 activity |
$10.55 |
$158.25 |
2 hours |
2 activities |
$18.20 |
$273.00 |
3 hours |
3 activities |
$21.00 |
$315 |
Incursions
Our team can come to you!
In addition to our very popular preschool excursion program, we also offer incursions to preschools and early childhood centres if you are relatively local to this area.
Most commonly, these are around worms and setting up a worm farm or hands-on planting and work in the veggie garden, but we have also conducted incursions around environmental art, minibeasts (both land and water) and waste/recycling.
We can also support you in setting up things like veggie gardens or composting.
2025 Incursion prices
Length of visit |
Number of activities |
Price per child incl GST |
Min charge incl GST |
1 hour |
1 activity |
$13.20 |
$198.00 |
2 hours |
2 activities |
$22.70 |
$340.50 |
Contact the Education Team
t 9433 3706
e edendale.education@nillumbik.vic.gov.au
Booking Request Form
Complete this form to check for availability or prices for the program you are interested in.
We will be in touch as soon as possible to discuss further details.
Book early as our programs are very popular.
Extras
Other things you may like to incorporate into your excursion:
- A walk along the Diamond Creek trail to Murray’s Wetlands, approximately 15 minutes. This area is a habitat for local flora and fauna.
- Time to wander around Edendale and see the animals, if this is not part of your booked program.
- Lunch and a play at the Eltham North adventure playground, which is a short walk from the farm and is also the drop off and pick up point for buses.