Magic Kingdom Childcare

🌳🍂 Revisiting Our Nature Adventure 🍂🌳

A few days ago, our Moreporks enjoyed a wonderful visit to Blockhouse Bay Reserve, where they explored and observed the beautiful flora around them. The children were fascinated by the different colours, shapes, and sizes of the leaves they discovered during their nature walk.

Today, they brought those memories back to life through creative art. Using a variety of materials, the children designed their own trees, carefully adding colourful leaves and acorns inspired by what they had seen in nature.

This experience encouraged the children to recall and share their observations, express their creativity, and strengthen their connection with the natural world. Through art, they revisited their learning journey and celebrated the beauty of the changing seasons.

To kick off Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa (Samoan Language Week), our Fantail tamaiti enjoyed a fun and creative Siapo (Tapa Cloth) making experience! Each child began by drawing their own picture on a square of paper. They then carefully dipped it into lauti (tea), which dyed the paper a beautiful brown colour and gave it an aged, traditional look.
Once all of the squares are dry, we will bring them together to create one big collaborative Siapo, which we will display on our wall, showcasing each child's creativity and contribution.
This experience aligns with Te Whāriki, supporting children to develop an understanding of their own and others' cultures, languages, and identities. Through creative exploration and cultural learning, our tamaiti are strengthening their sense of belonging and appreciation for the diverse cultures that make up our community.

Winter Enrolment Special 2026

At Magic Kingdom Childcare, we provide high-quality early childhood education that supports every child’s growth, confidence, and curiosity.

Qualified, caring teachers
Play-based learning
Healthy meals & safe environment
Flexible hours available
Contact us today to arrange a visit.

Moreporks had an exciting adventure visiting LynnMall! We enjoyed a bus ride together and explored local history, experiencing different shops including bookstores, shoe shops, and clothing stores. The tamariki especially loved riding the Bob the Builder truck and sharing a special lunch at McDonald’s.

This excursion supported many learning opportunities through exploration, communication, and social interaction. The children strengthened their literacy and numeracy skills as they recognized bus numbers, bus stop numbers, colors, signs, and symbols in the environment. They also practiced turn-taking, road safety awareness, and confidence in the community setting.

This learning experience supported tamariki in developing curiosity, problem-solving skills, and a sense of connection with their wider world.

💜 Parāoa Tākaro Waiporoporo 💜
(Purple Playdough)
Today, the tamariki worked together to make purple playdough. The children helped mix the ingredients and chose the colour purple (waiporoporo) for the playdough, showing confidence in sharing their ideas and making decisions together.
This hands-on experience supported fine motor development as the tamariki mixed, poured, and kneaded the dough. It also encouraged teamwork, communication, and sensory exploration through touch and creative play.
✨ “Mā te mahi tahi ka ako ngā tamariki.”
(Through working together, children learn.)

Today our little Kiwis enjoyed a lovely sensory play experience washing and cleaning toy animals in warm water trays. 🐘🐄🐑

The children explored textures, splashing, pouring, and caring for the animals while developing their fine motor skills and curiosity through play. It was wonderful to see their smiles, concentration, and excitement during this hands-on learning experience. 💦✨

Learning through play creates meaningful moments every day in our magical environment. ❤️

Today, our mokopuna explored textures, colors, and shapes while practicing fine-motor skills. This deepens the child's sensory awareness by letting them feel the crispness of the leaves, compare their shapes, and notice how natural materials behave differently from paper. As they arrange and glue each piece, they're also practicing planning, decision-making, and creative expression, turning a simple pile of leaves and colored cutouts into something that feels personally meaningful. This gently builds confidence because the child sees that their choices shape the final artwork.

Our Kiwis enjoyed collecting colourful fall leaves and sticking them onto sticky paper displayed on our garden wall. This hands-on experience encouraged creativity, sensory exploration and love for nature.
It was wonderful to see their excitement as they worked together, had fun, and created beautiful leafy artwork for everyone to enjoy 🌿✨

🌈 Sparkles, colours, and creativity! Today, our tamariki enjoyed making their own “Hanging Rainbow” by painting vibrant colours and adding glitter to make their artwork shine. ✨
Through this art experience, the children explored self-expression, creativity, and sensory learning while strengthening their fine motor skills and confidence in making their own choices.

Autumn Tree Exploration 🍂

Before autumn comes to an end, tamariki enjoyed exploring the beauty of the season by collecting colourful autumn leaves and creating their own autumn tree artwork. As they counted and glued the leaves onto their trees, they explored early mathematical concepts such as counting and number recognition while also strengthening fine motor skills, creativity, problem-solving, and hand-eye coordination. This hands-on experience encouraged language development, curiosity about the natural world, and collaborative learning with peers.

This learning connects to Te Whāriki strands of Exploration | Mana Aotūroa, Communication | Mana Reo, and Contribution | Mana Tangata, as tamariki confidently explored, created, counted, and shared their ideas together.