Red Kite Preschool Mt Albert

We love books!! Fostering a love of books and reading is such an important part of what we do here. There is so much research out there showing how literacy unlocks every other area of learning, and so we can't emphasise it too much.

What a gift it is to have self-confidence! Being able to speak in front of others, explain your ideas and have the bravery to try something new - having confidence in themselves gives children an important foundation from which they can go on to achieve so much. Starting with a supportive environment, we can support children to surmount challenges and believe in themselves.

Dinosaurs. They're big, they're mean, they're utterly fascinating for young children. Personally, I think access to dinosaur toys is a basic human right if you're under five! So it was great to see the Busy Bees getting, well, busy with the dinosaur toys.

Magic moments from the Preschool Room...

What does leadership look like in young children?

For our very littlest ones, it might be as simple as being the first person to try something new. As the children get older, it can turn into helping someone younger, introducing friends to a new game or book, or even running an activity.

What's important is giving children the chance to share their ideas, and supporting the social skills they are learning as they work in a group, negotiate and communicate ideas.

Our Alphabet Train continues to rumble on... this week we are up to the letter "F". We use all sorts of play-based activities to introduce children to the letters and, more importantly, the sounds they make. Here are some pictures of past activities for "T" and "W"!

Hoo boy, did we have a lot of rain yesterday! But there are some great rainy day activities we can get up to. What better time to snuggle up with a book, get engrossed in a puzzle, or spend some time creating your own miniature world?

Developing a sense of belonging is super important for little children. They learn through relationships with the people around them, and so secure and nurturing relationships with teachers is a must.

Developing balance and co-ordination begins as a baby and doesn't really end until adulthood. Providing lots of different activities and opportunities to develop these skills also gives kids lots of chances to have fun!

Maths is everywhere! And it's more than just counting - many children master the spoken sequence of numbers very early indeed, but don't understand that each word - "three", "seven" - corresponds to a quantity. Fostering this understanding, along with many other maths concepts such as length, position and shape, happens when we have meaningful tasks and interested adults to work alongside the children.