Our October Discovery Project for Early Childhood
Science • STEM • Nature • Sustainability • Creative Learning
Children are natural investigators.
They notice a bird outside the window, watch water disappear into the soil, collect an unusual rock, discover a tiny insect or look into the night sky and wonder where the Moon goes during the day.
These everyday moments can become powerful learning opportunities.
From Earth to Sky is a month-long inquiry project for children aged 0–6 years, designed to grow through children's questions, observations and discoveries.
Inspired by October themes including World Space Week, Australian Wildlife Week, Earth Science Week, National Nutrition Week, National Water Week and National Bird Week, the project travels from the ground beneath our feet to the sky above us.
Children explore Earth, water, plants, food, wildlife and space through hands-on science, STEM challenges, creative arts, movement, language and outdoor learning.
Most importantly, this is not a project that needs to be completed.
It is a project designed to evolve.
💭 Our Big Question
What can we discover about our world — and how can we care for it?
Begin with this question, but don't expect one answer.
Children's observations might lead the investigation in completely different directions.
One child may become interested in worms beneath the soil. Another might notice birds visiting the playground. A seed beginning to grow could start a plant investigation, while a conversation about the Moon could take the whole group into space.
Follow those moments.
They are where the project becomes the children's project.
🔎 Start With an “I Wonder…” Space
You don't need to prepare an elaborate science area before beginning.
Start small.
Create a Discovery Space using materials such as:
🌍 images or a globe of Earth
🔍 magnifying glasses
🌱 seeds and plants
🪨 rocks, soil and natural materials
🪶 feathers or photographs of local birds
🐨 Australian wildlife images or figures
💧 transparent containers for water investigations
🌙 photographs of the Moon and night sky
🚀 books about Earth and space
✏️ paper, pencils and clipboards
Then ask:
“What do you wonder about our world?”
Record children's questions on an I Wonder… Board.
You might hear:
Where do birds sleep?
What's underneath the ground?
Why do plants need water?
Why does the Moon follow us?
Can animals see at night?
How does a rocket get into space?
You don't need to answer everything immediately.
Instead, ask:
“How could we find out?”
That small change turns a question into an investigation.
🌍 Discovery 1 — What's Beneath Our Feet?
🔬 DISCOVER — EARTH SCIENCE
Begin the journey with something children encounter every day: the ground.
Collect and investigate soil, sand, rocks, leaves and other safe natural materials.
Provide magnifying glasses, containers, trays and sorting materials and allow children time to look closely.
Explore concepts such as:
rough / smooth • wet / dry • hard / soft • heavy / light • big / small
👶 Babies & Toddlers 0–2
Offer supervised sensory experiences with safe natural materials.
Children can touch, scoop, pour, transfer and compare while educators introduce simple descriptive language.
🧒 Children 3–6
Invite children to sort rocks, compare soil samples and document what they notice.
Try adding water to different types of soil.
💭 Ask
Are all rocks the same?
What happens when soil gets wet?
What can we see with a magnifying glass?
What might live underneath the soil?
🌱 Extend the Learning
Take the investigation outside.
Look beneath leaves, beside plants and around garden areas. Rather than collecting everything, children can photograph or draw discoveries where they find them.
Learning possibilities: Earth science • classification • sensory exploration • observation • vocabulary • comparison
💧 Discovery 2 — Wonderful Water
🔬 DISCOVER — SCIENCE + STEM
Water play can become much more than pouring and splashing when children are given a problem to investigate.
Explore:
floating • sinking • absorption • flow • volume • evaporation • movement
Start with children's predictions.
“Do you think it will sink or float? Why?”
Test the idea.
Then test another object.
Did the prediction change?
🛠️ STEM Challenge — Can You Move the Water?
Provide:
tubes • funnels • containers • pipes • cups • recycled materials
Set a challenge:
Can you move water from one place to another without carrying the container?
Allow children to design their own solution.
ASK → IMAGINE → BUILD → TEST → CHANGE → TRY AGAIN
Water may leak.
A tube may be too high.
The construction might collapse.
Those moments aren't interruptions to the activity.
They are the STEM learning.
👶 Babies & Toddlers 0–2
Explore filling, emptying, pouring, splashing and cause-and-effect.
🧒 Children 3–6
Investigate flow, capacity, gradients, construction and problem-solving.
💭 Ask
Where does the water go?
Why did it stop?
Which container holds more?
What could we change?
Learning possibilities: physics • mathematics • engineering • prediction • problem-solving • sensory exploration
🌱 Discovery 3 — From Seed to Soil and Back Again
🔬 DISCOVER — LIFE SCIENCE + SUSTAINABILITY
Now connect Earth and water with something familiar to every child:
food.
Explore the cycle:
🌱 SEED → SOIL → PLANT → FOOD → SCRAPS → COMPOST → SOIL
Plant herbs or vegetables and observe them throughout October.
Open suitable fruits and vegetables and investigate what's inside.
Compare:
seeds • shapes • colours • textures • sizes • smells
👶 Babies & Toddlers 0–2
Smell herbs, explore vegetables, water plants and investigate safe natural textures.
🧒 Children 3–6
Sort seeds, make predictions, plant them and record changes through photographs, drawings and simple measurements.
Where appropriate, introduce composting.
Children can begin to discover that something we usually call “waste” can become part of another natural cycle.
💭 Ask
Where does our food begin?
Are all seeds the same?
What does a seed need to grow?
What happens to our food scraps?
Can something we throw away become useful again?
Learning possibilities: biology • food science • sustainability • measurement • healthy living • environmental responsibility
🐦 Discovery 4 — Who Shares Our World?
🔍 DISCOVER — WILDLIFE + BIODIVERSITY
You don't have to travel far to investigate wildlife.
Step outside.
Pause.
Look.
Listen.
Children might notice:
🐦 birds
🐜 ants
🦋 butterflies
🕷️ spiders and webs
🐝 insects
🪶 feathers
🌳 nests or shelters
🐾 other signs that animals have visited
Not finding an animal can be part of the investigation too.
A web, feather, nest, sound or hole can provide evidence that another living thing shares the environment.
🐦 Create a Wildlife Observation Station
Provide children with:
binoculars • clipboards • pencils • photographs • identification books • magnifying glasses
Children can draw or photograph what they notice.
Over time, create a simple record:
What did we see?
Where did we see it?
When did it appear?
Did we see it again?
Older children might begin noticing patterns.
🛠️ STEM Challenge — Build a Habitat
Choose an animal the children have become interested in.
Ask:
What would this animal need to live here?
Children can investigate its needs before designing a habitat using blocks, recycled materials and natural loose parts.
PLAN → BUILD → TEST → IMPROVE
Consider:
food • water • shelter • space • shade • protection
This helps children move beyond simply naming animals toward understanding that living things depend on their environments.
Learning possibilities: biology • biodiversity • engineering • observation • sustainability • environmental responsibility
🚀 Discovery 5 — Looking Up: From Earth to Space
🔬 DISCOVER — SPACE SCIENCE + STEM
After spending time investigating what's around and beneath us, look up.
Explore:
☀️ the Sun
☁️ clouds
🌙 the Moon
⭐ stars
🌍 Earth
🪐 planets
🌌 day and night
Ask children what they already know — and what they wonder.
💭 Ask
What can we see in the daytime sky?
What changes at night?
Why can't we always see the Moon?
What do you think Earth looks like from space?
How could people travel beyond Earth?
🔦 Science Investigation — Light & Shadow
Space exploration can begin with something very accessible:
light.
Use sunlight, torches and different objects to investigate shadows.
Move objects:
closer • further away • higher • lower
Observe what changes.
Try tracing outdoor shadows and returning later.
Has the shadow moved?
💭 Investigate
What makes a shadow?
Can we make it bigger?
Can we make it smaller?
Can we make a shadow disappear?
Does every material block light in the same way?
Children are now investigating light through direct experimentation rather than simply being told how shadows work.
🚀 STEM Challenge — Design Something to Explore Space
Avoid starting with a rocket template.
Instead ask:
What would we need to explore space?
Provide cardboard, boxes, tubes, recycled materials, blocks, connectors, paper and drawing materials.
Children might create:
a rocket • rover • telescope • satellite • space station • Moon vehicle • something nobody has invented yet
Encourage children to draw or discuss their ideas before construction.
Then ask:
What does it do?
Who uses it?
How does it move?
What problem does it solve?
What would you change next time?
The finished construction is interesting.
The thinking behind it is more important.
Learning possibilities: physics • space science • engineering • design • imagination • problem-solving
🎨 CREATE — Our Earth to Sky Collaborative Artwork
Science and creativity don't need to be separated.
Create one evolving artwork throughout October.
Begin close to the ground:
🪨 Earth & Soil
Then gradually travel upward:
🌱 Plants
💧 Water
🐦 Wildlife
🌳 Habitats
☁️ Sky
🌙 Moon
⭐ Stars
🪐 Space
Children might contribute:
painting • drawing • printing • collage • photography • natural materials • recycled materials • construction • children's words
Avoid deciding exactly what the finished artwork should look like.
Allow it to change as the investigation changes.
By the end of October, the artwork becomes more than decoration.
It becomes a visual record of children's learning.
🏃 MOVE — Journey From Earth to Space
Take the project into physical play.
Create a movement journey inspired by children's discoveries.
🌱 Become a Seed
Curl down small, then slowly stretch and grow.
🌿 Become a Plant
Reach towards the sunlight and sway in the wind.
💧 Become Water
Flow around, over and underneath obstacles.
🐦 Become a Bird
Balance, stretch, flap and travel through space.
🌙 Explore the Moon
Try slow movements, long steps and balancing challenges.
🚀 Launch Into Space
Crouch down.
Count together:
5… 4… 3… 2… 1…
BLAST OFF!
Older children can help design the movement course and decide how different discoveries should be represented physically.
💬 CONNECT — Our Questions Matter
An important part of inquiry learning is helping children understand that their ideas and questions are valuable.
Keep the I Wonder… Board visible throughout the project.
Return to earlier questions.
Ask:
What did we think before?
What did we try?
What happened?
What did we discover?
Did our idea change?
What do we wonder now?
Sometimes an investigation will answer a question.
Sometimes it will create five new ones.
Both are valuable.
👶 One Project — Different Ways to Learn
From Earth to Sky can be used across the 0–6 age range without expecting every child to participate in the same way.
Babies & Toddlers 0–2
Learning may happen through:
sensory exploration • movement • repetition • cause-and-effect • responsive interactions • touching • watching • listening
Educators can model language and respond to children's gestures, sounds, movements and interests.
Children 3–6
Learning can increasingly involve:
questioning • prediction • classification • measurement • experimentation • construction • representation • documentation • collaborative problem-solving
The investigation is shared.
The learning doesn't have to look the same for every child.
🎨 🔬 🏃 💬 Our Learning in Action
🎨 CREATE
Art • imagination • design • representation • construction
🔬 DISCOVER
Science • STEM • Earth • water • plants • wildlife • space • experimentation
🏃 MOVE
Outdoor exploration • sensory learning • coordination • movement • physical play
💬 CONNECT
Questions • vocabulary • collaboration • communication • sustainability • responsibility
Rich learning experiences often include several of these at once.
A child building a wildlife habitat may be investigating an animal, measuring materials, carrying blocks, negotiating with another child, drawing a plan and redesigning a structure within the same experience.
📘 EYLF V2.0 Connections
Outcome 1 — Children have a strong sense of identity
Children develop agency by contributing their own questions, ideas, theories and decisions to the investigation.
Outcome 2 — Children are connected with and contribute to their world
Children investigate natural environments, living things, biodiversity, sustainability and ways of caring for the world around them.
Outcome 3 — Children have a strong sense of wellbeing
Outdoor investigation, sensory exploration and physical experiences support children's wellbeing and confidence.
Outcome 4 — Children are confident and involved learners
Children develop dispositions for learning through curiosity, experimentation, prediction, problem-solving, investigation and persistence.
Outcome 5 — Children are effective communicators
Children communicate discoveries through conversation, questions, drawings, movement, construction, photographs, symbols and documentation.
🏡 NQS Connections
QA1 — Educational Program and Practice
The project provides opportunities for child-led inquiry, intentional teaching, responsive planning and extending learning through children's emerging interests.
QA2 — Children's Health and Safety
Outdoor exploration, movement and appropriately supervised sensory and science experiences support children's health, safety and wellbeing.
QA3 — Physical Environment
Natural materials, outdoor spaces, sustainable practices and flexible investigation areas support exploration and play-based learning.
QA5 — Relationships with Children
Educators listen to children's ideas, respond to their questions and work alongside children as co-investigators.
QA6 — Collaborative Partnerships with Families and Communities
Families can contribute photographs, recycled materials, nature discoveries, cultural knowledge and their own experiences related to children's questions.
📸 Document the Journey — Not Just the Finished Product
Documentation can help children revisit their thinking.
Consider recording:
children's questions
their original predictions
photographs of investigations
drawings and plans
changes children made to constructions
new vocabulary
children's explanations
unexpected discoveries
Place some documentation where children can see it.
A photograph from last week might prompt:
“Remember what happened here?”
Children can then revisit the experience and compare their current thinking with their earlier ideas.
This makes documentation part of the learning process rather than simply evidence that an activity occurred.
💭 Reflect, Revisit & Extend
At the end of October, consider:
What captured children's curiosity?
Which investigations did they return to?
What theories changed over time?
Where did children solve problems independently?
What mistakes led to new discoveries?
How did children communicate their ideas?
How did the environment support investigation?
What did families contribute?
And perhaps the most useful question:
What are the children still wondering about?
That question can become the beginning of your next investigation.
🌍 From Earth to Sky
The purpose of this project isn't to teach young children everything about Earth, wildlife, water or space in one month.
It is to help children experience what it means to wonder, investigate and discover.
Give them opportunities to look closely.
Let them make predictions.
Allow an experiment not to work.
Give them time to redesign.
Return to their questions.
Listen to their theories.
And allow the project to travel somewhere you didn't originally plan.
Look closely. Ask questions. Test ideas. Care for our world.
Play. Grow. Belong.