Deb's Place Early Learning Centre

Manuia le Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa! 🇼🇸

Happy Samoan Language Week!

This week we celebrate the beautiful Samoan language, culture, and traditions. Samoan Language Week is a wonderful opportunity for children and families to learn a few simple phrases and explore the rich culture of Samoa.

Why not try some of these phrases at home?

Some useful information coming into winter and an increase of illnesses.

The tamariki have been enjoying revisiting familiar books at preschool, building early literacy skills as they recognise characters, retell stories, predict what happens next, and explore new vocabulary.

One of the exciting weekly events at preschool is the arrival of the groceries! The tamariki are always eager to help carry, unpack, and sort the food, building teamwork, responsibility, and practical life skills through these everyday experiences.

Milo the mischievous monkey came to visit preschool this week and made quite a mess of our toys and learning spaces! Milo Monkey is one of the fun teaching tools we use to help children learn important skills and values through playful experiences. The tamariki worked together to tidy up, showing manaakitanga and rangatiratanga as they cared for their environment and took responsibility for their preschool space.

The children loved watching the arborist at work this week! After he finished trimming the trees, the tamariki helped gather up the leaves and branches, proudly working together to help tidy the playground. This was a wonderful opportunity to show manaakitanga and kaitiakitanga as the children cared for their environment and worked together as a team.

Our Transition to School group has been exploring different ways to represent numbers through games, group discussions, writing, and hands-on learning experiences. The tamariki are building confidence with early maths concepts while developing the skills they need to have a successful start to their school journey.

The children have been noticing walnuts falling from the trees and were excited to collect them up to take home. This sparked lots of curiosity and conversation, as tamariki explored the changing season and enjoyed gathering their own little treasures from the outdoors.

Through this experience, children were showing kaitiakitanga, caring for and respecting the natural environment as they collected and shared what they found.

Our tamariki have been enjoying simple carpentry experiences, using real tools to hammer nails and create their own designs. This hands-on learning supports confidence, coordination, and problem-solving, while encouraging creativity and a strong sense of mana and achievement.