Check out this beautiful poem from one of our Garaway Kindergarten parents, who framed it for us as a gift on her daughter’s last day.

Garaway Kindy is the place to be
A home away from home for our tamariki
Face painting, mud making, we’re often outrageous
We explore, we play and our laughter’s contagious
We saw, we sandpit, have tea parties, do mess making
We build, we climb, do glue gunning and pasting
We hang from the monkey bars to scare all the teachers
We dress up, make noises and pretend to be creatures
We eat at the kai table, we have time on the mat
We look after our friends, there’s no question about that
So many opportunities to play, learn and grow
Prepared for what’s ahead when it’s our time to go
To the teachers we thank you for all of your mahi
But most importantly your kindness, your care and your AWHI

At Balmoral Kindergarten 膩 m膩tou tamariki (our children) enjoy playing ‘Ng膩 t奴ru whakatangi’ (musical chairs). This game is where you walk, skip, or dance around a set of chairs while music plays. When the music stops, everyone must find a chair to sit in. The catch? There鈥檚 always one less chair than players, so someone gets left standing!

There are many opportunities to develop social skills during the game. Ng膩 tamariki practice conflict management (who sat in the chair first), showing respect (keeping their hands to themselves as they walk) and having patience. As well as teamwork (everyone has to walk around the chairs at the same time and speed), good sportsmanship (‘getting out’ as gracefully as possible), listening skills, focus and determination.

Losing can be hard for some of our tamariki, but ng膩 kaiako (teachers) provide emotional support and encouragement. We might not win every game, but we can try again, improve our skills to focus on the music, as well as our reactivity to sit on the chair first.

At Golden Sands Early Learning Centre we have been reading the pukapuka ‘Have you filled a bucket today?’ by the author Carol McCloud. The story has promoted lots of wonderful k艒rero with our tamariki about ways we can show care, kindness and respect for others – and be bucket fillers!

We have created a beautiful rainbow wall where we proudly display our chosen ‘bucket filler’ tamaiti of the day. Our tamariki are so excited for our daily gathering to hear who the bucket filler of the day is and why they were chosen.

We feel this is such a lovely way to show recognition to our tamariki for their mahi and contribution. The look on their faces when they have been chosen shows just how proud they are of themselves.

Such a momentous occasion for Tairua h膩pori, yippee we have a skatepark!

What a way to show how determination and perseverance can achieve goals, and how cool for tamariki to finally have an area to develop and grow their skills, competence and confidence on wheels!

It was pretty special for Tairua Kindergarten to be part of the opening ceremony, connecting with past and present kindergarten tamariki and wh膩nau there.

One of our tamariki won a new skateboard at the opening ceremony too, how rawe!

Ng膩 mihi nui, thank you our amazing parents for joining us enabling kindy to be part of this special event.

Links to Te Wh膩riki early childhood curriculum:

• connecting links with the h膩pori are affirmed and extended
• tamariki are empowered to learn with and alongside others by engaging in experiences that have meaning for them.

Ng膩 tamariki at Thames Kindergarten had fun celebrating Sea Week. They enjoyed being involved in fishing, salt ice, matching games, puzzles and drawing activities, along with exploring treasures from the moana.

During Sea Week ng膩 tamariki learnt to:

• recognise and identify different kinds of common sea animals
• explore their senses through the experiences we set up
• strengthen and develop their fine and gross motor skills
• respect the moana and marine life, as we had discussions about how we can keep our moana clean and protect our marine life.

Toit奴 te marae o T膩ne, Toit奴 te marae o Tangaroa, Toit奴 te Iwi.
Protect and strengthen land and sea, and they will protect and strengthen the people.

Ng膩tea Kindergarten was crawling with creatures when Brian and Tikvah from Hands On Creatures came to share their amazing collection of bugs, spiders, lizards, turtles and tortoises for the tamariki to have a hands on experience with.

Our tamariki loved being up close to these amazing creatures and even being able to hold, admire and pet some of them!

As they say, “It takes a village to raise a child”, and Balmoral Kindergarten can鈥檛 thank our h膩pori (local community) enough for its support. Ng膩 mihi, a huge thank you to the South Waikato Menzshed, who collected our old carpentry tables and refurbished them. Our tamariki have enjoyed getting back into carpentry mahi.

We would also like to mihi (thank and acknowledge) Nana Hazel, who kindly donated a brand new two door fridge for 膩 m膩tou tamariki (our children) to keep 膩 r膩tou kai (their food) nice and cool during the warmer months.

We have also been fundraising to buy a three door fridge, which wouldn’t have been achievable without the support of our h膩pori purchasing our raffles.

A massive shout out to Amy Perez and her team at Taumarunui Youth and Community Trust, who organised a fantastic Olympic Games community event for our Te Ara M膩tauranga Kindergarten tamariki to be involved in.

As invited participants of this local event, we were encouraged to make a flag to represent our Kindergarten. Tamariki got stuck in and did some wonderful artistic mahi, producing a beautiful flag to showcase our kindergarten community and display a strong sense of mana whenua throughout the games.

The mini Olympic Games was a great opportunity for our tamariki to explore and develop their gross motor skills, follow instructions, work together as a team in a large community event, as well as be a part of our local community of whakawhanaungatanga.

We are so proud of our tamariki for their resilience and ability to give it a go, and have fun while doing so! We all enjoyed our day out, rekindling relationships with some of our tamariki and wh膩nau that have already moved on to kura.

Thank you to all our ataahua wh膩nau help, we are so lucky to have your tautoko!

Northwood Kindergarten participated in the House to House challenge for Ronald McDonald House Charities New Zealand over the month of March. Our goal was to cycle, run, walk or swim a total of 210km, which is the average distance that New Zealand wh膩nau need to travel to get their medical treatment.

A big mihi to all who have participated and helped us to support such a great cause, and raise awareness of what Ronald McDonald House does for tamariki and wh膩nau across the motu. We reached a massive 759km, which is well beyond our goal of 210km! What an amazing effort! Ka pai e te wh膩nau!

Tamariki at Northwood have been learning where Ronald McDonald House is, what it looks like and how it helps people. This awareness is important, as if they need to go there some day, having prior knowledge and understanding can reduce anxiety in what may be a challenging time. Tamariki are also learning to support others, show manaakitanga and aroha, while working on their own physical fitness to support their wellbeing.

It鈥檚 that time of the year where all talk is about pumpkins at Ng膩tea Kindergarten! Each year our local kura at Turua sells special pumpkin plants at their Calf Club event as part of their 鈥楪arden to Table鈥� project. The challenge is to try and grow the BIGGEST pumpkin, and bring it along to their pumpkin festival for weigh in.

This year one of our kaiako, Karen, managed to bring her whopping 157.kg pumpkin in and WON, setting a new record for the kura! Our 新香港六合彩开奖网 pumpkin weighed in second at 110.5kg, winning us a fabulous new hose for our sandpit play and some seeds for our vege pod!

We also made a scarecrow and grew rainbow corn for the unusual vegetable competition. We had fun decorating spare pumpkins too with the consensus choosing to create a 鈥榝lying saucer鈥�!

Such a great way to connect with one of our local schools and have fun along the way!