Browns Bay Taiaotea Kindergarten

At Taiaotea Kindergarten, we value every child and their emotions. We believe tamariki should feel safe, supported, heard, and understood as they learn to express and manage their feelings.

To support this, we’ve created a small, cosy calming space with soft lights and cushions—a place where children can pause, relax, and feel secure.

Recently, two tamariki chose to spend time there together. With writing pads and pencils, they quietly created and shared their own stories about kindergarten. In this peaceful space, they spoke softly, listened to each other, and expressed their ideas with calm confidence.

Moments like these remind us how important it is to provide environments where children feel emotionally safe. When tamariki know their feelings matter, they build confidence, resilience, and a strong sense of belonging. 💛

🌱 Planting for the Future at Torbay School 🌱

Last week, our tamariki had a wonderful opportunity to visit Torbay School and take part in a special tree planting event as part of the Ngā Rākau o te Ngākau – Tree of the Heart project.

Together with Year 6 students, the children planted kānuka trees, working side by side, sharing knowledge, and caring for the whenua. It was a meaningful experience to connect with the school community and contribute to the environment.

For many of our tamariki, this made the experience even more special — knowing they may return one day and see the trees they planted growing strong 🌿

A big thank you to Torbay School and everyone involved for supporting this beautiful kaupapa! 💚

Some of the richest learning happens through “loose parts” — the simple, open-ended materials that invite children to explore, imagine, create, and problem-solve in their own way.
Sticks become bridges. Stones become treasures. Fabric turns into capes, tents, or rivers. There’s no single “right way” to play, which means children are free to think critically, collaborate, experiment, and express their ideas with confidence.
Loose parts encourage:
✨ Creativity and imagination
✨ Communication and teamwork
✨ Problem-solving and resilience
✨ Independence and curiosity
✨ Fine motor and cognitive development
When we provide children with open-ended materials, we’re not just giving them objects to play with — we’re giving them opportunities to lead their own learning.
Sometimes the simplest materials create the most meaningful learning moments.

Exploring Mana Whenua & Remembering Our Past
This week, our learning journey began as we explored the concept of mana whenua in our Browns Bay community. We are grateful to be working alongside Te Kawerau ā maki, our local iwi, to deepen our understanding of the history, stories, and connections to this land.
Our tamariki have shown great curiosity and enthusiasm, especially when listening to the stories of the iwi ancestors such as Tiriwa and Hape. These stories sparked rich conversations and inspired many creative responses. Tamariki expressed their understanding through drawing, sharing detailed stories and interpretations of these important historical figures and their connections to the whenua.
As part of our wider learning, we also explored the idea of ancestors as those who came before us and helped shape our country. In connection with ANZAC learning, we reflected on the people who fought for Aotearoa and how we remember them today. Tamariki created beautiful poppies using dye painting, egg cartons, and bead threading, showing both creativity and respect.
We shared the story of ANZAC Bear, and Kaiako Sarah brought in special medals from her great-grandfather, helping make these ideas more meaningful and real for the children. To conclude our week, we worked together to bake ANZAC biscuits—another way to connect with history through hands-on learning.
It has been a rich and meaningful start to our exploration of mana whenua, identity, and remembrance. We look forward to continuing this journey alongside our tamariki.

When life gives you Feijos, you make muffins!!
This week our tamariki have enjoyed collecting feijoas from our very laden tree. There have been rich conversations about how we know when fruit is ready to pick, how it grows, and the changes that we notice as it ripens.
The tamariki showed great care as they harvest, counted, carried and sorted the fruit, strengthening both their practical skills and the understanding of where our food comes from.
With so much fruit to enjoy, we decided to bake muffins-and also share fresh feijoas with whānau. As an Enviroschools kindergarten, we are always looking for ways to make sustainable choices and care for Papatūāuku. With the support of Kaiako the Tamariki explored how we could reduce waste by using the whole feijoa, including the skin, in our baking! The tamariki helped measure, mix, problem solve and reflect on the changes they observed as the ingredients combined and cooked.
This hand- on learning experiences links beautifully to our Environschools kuapapa particularly around sustainable communities- Where harvesting and using food we grow ourselves builds understanding of local food systems and encourages us to share resources with others.
Empowering learners- Helps Tamariki make active decisions, problem solve, contributing ideas and working collaboratively.
Learning for sustainability- Explores ways to reduce waste, using resources wisely, and act as kaitiaki of our environment.
This was another great example of authentic, real-life learning taking place in our kindergarten-rich in conversation, teamwork and or course, very tasty muffins to share with all!

February has been a special and meaningful month at kindergarten as we acknowledge two important events- Waitangi Day and Lunar New Year.
In preparation for our whānau celebration this evening, whānau have come in, making over 350 dumplings, Korean rice cake and sausage skewers to share. Food is such a wonderful way to connect, and we are so grateful to our whānau for bringing these cultural traditions into our community.
Our last few weeks have seen tamariki exploring pūrākau, art works, making paper korowhai, lanterns and revisiting our own Treaty at kindergarten.
Happy Lunar New Year and Waitangi Day!

Kia ora koutou and welcome to the new year, 2026. Tamariki have now returned, and a growing interest in ngā mea e tipu ana (the things that grow) is developing as they notice the changes happening in the garden. Seeds (kākano) have become a new focus, with tamariki enjoying collecting and planting them in our vegetable garden as well as throughout the wider garden. Rengarenga kākano have been collected and planted, and we are hopeful to see new tipu growing soon. There is also much excitement as our banana trees have their first bunches of panana forming, which we are eagerly waiting to grow and ripen.
Kaitiaki Kindergartens have committed to planting 500 native trees/plants this year so so we are hoping to see new tipu soon.

Meri Kirihimete! Today is the last day of Term 4 and it feels like the year has flown by. Safe travels as you get out and explore Aotearoa and enjoy the chance to relax with whānau.

On Friday we celebrated the end of another busy year with tamariki and whānau with our Xmas in the Park. The tamariki had been practicing waiata for their show for weeks and all the hard work paid off. Great to see extend family, older brothers and sisters and of course our special guest, Santa Claus. Meri Kirihimete!