Apple Tree Childcare

This week at Apple Tree we celebrated Ocean Week! 🌊🐠

Our tamariki explored the wonders of the ocean through hands-on learning, creative activities and lots of curiosity.

From discovering sea creatures to ocean-inspired play and art, the children loved learning about the amazing world beneath the waves.

Ocean Week sparked wonderful conversations about marine life, caring for our oceans and protecting our environment.

It has been a week full of discovery, creativity and excitement as our little learners explored the beauty of the ocean together. 💙

🐎🧧 Welcoming the Year of the Horse at Apple Tree 🧧🐎

This week our tamariki have been learning about the Year of the Horse and what it represents- strength, energy, confidence, and perseverance.

Through creative art, meaningful discussions, and cultural exploration, children discovered how different families celebrate this special time of year.

At Apple Tree, we value celebrating traditions from around the world and nurturing respect, curiosity, and understanding in our learning environment.

Wishing all our families celebrating a joyful and prosperous year ahead ❤️

🦖 Dino Week at Apple Tree! 🦕

Apple Tree has been full of curious little palaeontologists digging, exploring and learning all about dinosaurs!

This week the children:
🦴 Learned how dinosaurs lived and became extinct
📚 Built new vocabulary through stories and imaginative play
🌋 Created volcanoes, fossils and dino art
🔢 Counted, sorted and compared dinosaur sizes
🤝 Worked together to build dino worlds

A week full of BIG learning and even bigger excitement!
What was your child’s favourite dinosaur? 🦖💚

We are so excited about the growing relationship between Marlborough Primary School and Apple Tree 💚. Recently, a group of Marlborough students from different year levels visited us to spend time with our children.

They read stories 📚, played together 🤝, and our Apple Tree tamariki proudly shared their learning and their “home away from home” environment.

This special partnership brings so many benefits for our children:
🌟 Building confidence as they share their learning with older children
🌟 Developing social skills through buddy friendships
🌟 Experiencing positive role models for reading and learning
🌟 Easing the transition to school by becoming familiar with older peers
🌟 Strengthening a sense of belonging in the wider community
🌟 Encouraging teamwork, empathy, and kindness
🌟 Creating excitement about the journey from early learning to primary school

We are proud to see our children connecting, learning, and growing together 🍎

💙 Today we celebrated the incredible dads in our community! Thank you for the love, laughter, and strength you bring every day. Happy Father’s Day to all our superheroes without capes! 💙

🎶 Music Week Moments! 🎶
Our tamariki had the best time exploring rhythm, sound, and movement! From shaking instruments to dancing and singing! Music brought so much joy and learning into our days. 💛🥁✨

🌟 Professional Development at Apple Tree 🌟

Recently, our teaching team had the wonderful opportunity to take part in our first professional development session with the amazing team from Engage, supported by the Ministry of Education.

We’ve already learnt so much, including new ways to:

✅ Support children’s social and emotional development
✅ Create engaging and purposeful learning experiences
✅ Build strong partnerships with families and whānau
✅ Reflect on and enhance our teaching practices

We’re excited for our next session and can’t wait to continue growing as educators and bringing fresh ideas into our daily routines for the benefit of our tamariki.

A huge thank you to Engage and the Ministry of Education for helping us on this journey.

🚴‍♀️ Wheels Day Fun! 🛴🚗

Today was all about movement, balance, and BIG smiles at our Wheels Day! The children brought in their favourite bikes, scooters, trikes, and ride-ons and zoomed around with such excitement. 🏁✨

It was incredible to see their confidence grow as they navigated turns, practiced their coordination, and shared joyful moments with friends. Learning through play at its best! 💛

Thank you to our families for helping make this day a success and for those helmets!

Today was all about love, laughter, and celebration! Our preschoolers had a beautiful time honouring the amazing women in their lives — mummies, nannas, and all the special ladies who make their world so bright.

With joyful songs, fun activities, and delicious treats shared together, the room was filled with smiles and sweet moments. Thank you to everyone who joined us — you are cherished beyond words.

Happy Mother’s Day from all of us! 🩷🌷🌸🪻🌼💐

Preschool had the pleasure to welcome Tabitha from council as she shared the importance of her job and looking after our native parks and bush. She shared what she does as a park ranger, what we can do to help look after native birds and even meet some special creatures during her visit. We love learning how to care for our planet with the help of the experts! 🦉🦜🐀🪶🏞️

We had the best time soaking up the beautiful autumn colours during our local park visit. The trees are bursting with golden, yellow and red leaves. As we explored and collected autumn leaves for our art activity we enjoyed hearing the crunch of the leaves under our feet. What a fun day in our community! 🍂 🍁 🍄🌦️

🚒🔥 Exciting visit at Apple Tree preschool! Yesterday, our little learners got a special visit from our local firefighters and their big red fire truck! 🚨👩‍🚒

The children had a blast exploring the truck, practicing our fire drill, and even using the hose to put out pretend fires. 💦✨

A huge THANK YOU to our brave firefighters for taking the time to teach and inspire our future heroes. We always love having you contribute to our learning and building competent and confident learners. See you again soon! ❤️