Little Wonders Rolleston

Pathways to School and Kura
a whanau blog - part 3

How can you support your child’s transition to Kura [continued]…
• Reading together regularly provides opportunities for your child to explore new ideas, introduces new vocabulary and supports their creativity and imagination. Reading to your child also helps them to understand how stories work, strengthens their attention and concentration, and creates opportunities to talk about ideas, feelings, and experiences. These skills help children feel more confident and prepared for the routines, learning, and social interactions they will encounter when they start school.

• Having rich conversations and asking open-ended questions is a powerful way to support your child's learning. Questions such as “What do you think will happen next?” or “Why do you think that?” encourage children to think deeply, share their ideas, and build their vocabulary. These conversations help develop communication, problem solving, and critical thinking skills.



• Encouraging problem-solving before stepping in to help. This is an important way to build the skills your child needs for a successful transition to school. Giving your child time to think, try different approaches, and work through challenges helps develop resilience, independence, and confidence in their own abilities.

• Supporting your child to be independent with tasks such as getting dressed, packing their bag, and caring for their belongings. When you encourage your child to do things for themselves, they build confidence, responsibility, and a sense of capability. Practicing everyday routines at home will helps children become more organised and independent, making it easier for them to manage the expectations of the school environment.

These experiences may seem simple, but they are incredibly powerful learning opportunties that will help support your child as a lifelong learner.

Pathways to School and Kura
a whanau blog - part 2

How can you support your child's transition?
You don't need to recreate a classroom at home to help your child prepare for school or kura.

In fact, some of the most valuable learning happens during everyday moments. For example, when your child is swinging on monkey bars they are developing gross motor skills and strengthening muscles that will help them to sit for longer periods of time and have the hand strength needed to be able to hold a pencil. Learning experiences such as art, playdough, sand and water play are all fantastic ways to further strengthen hand muscles and hand eye coordination skills - very important for when they are ready to begin learning to write.

Using loose parts and sensory experiences of developing the skills needed for school that were mentioned in the first whānau blog - curiosity, confidence, relationships/connectedness, questioning and persistence.

Come back tomorrow to see some simple ways you can further support your child's transition to school skills at home

Pathways to School and Kura
a whanau blog - part 1

Pathways to School and Kura
When we first become parents, that first day of school or kura can feel a long way off. For many of us, it isn't until our child turns four, or is approaching their fifth birthday, that we start thinking about what "being ready" for school really means.
When children start school or kura, it isn't their ability to recite the alphabet or count to 20 that matters most. What many schools and kura across Aotearoa New Zealand value most are independent children who are curious, confident, able to communicate, build relationships, ask questions, and persist when things become challenging.
These are the skills that help children engage with learning, adapt to new experiences, and thrive in a school environment. In other words, to set children up for success in a school environment we need to focus less on 'what' to learn and more on 'how' to learn.

Why learning how to learn matters
The world our children are growing up in is changing rapidly. Many of the jobs and industries that exist today look very different from those of previous generations, and new technologies continue to reshape the way we live, work, and access information

While facts can be found in seconds, skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, adaptability, and a willingness to keep learning remain just as important as ever.

These are the skills that help children navigate change, build relationships, and respond confidently to new challenges throughout their lives.

The exciting part is that many of these skills are built through something that children do naturally every day: play.

To adults, play can sometimes look like children are just having fun. In reality, play is where some of the richest learning takes place. Through play, children test ideas, solve problems, experiment, communicate, negotiate, and make sense of the world around them.

Celebrations for book week have started early at LW Rolleston. Our foyer has been transformed into a cozy reading area. Parents are stopping here to read books with their tamaiti at drop offs and pick ups. What a fantastic way to promote the love of literacy and reading - coffees and hot chocolates are provided on request🙂

We had a snowy winter wonderland today. The temperature was 5 degrees (felt like -6 at one point). There were a lot of fun inside experiences today🙂

Earlier this year, our centre gained a new Centre Manager. Jan has a lot of experience managing other centres and has extensive knowledge of curriculum and environments.

Since Jan started, we have had some great feedback from parents and students which we are really happy to share with you.

The centre is continuing to develop the educational programme - pop on in and have a chat with us about what we can offer.

We have introduced a new initiative for Pākari - tamariki indicating if they are present for the day. This experience supports name recognition and pre-reading skills. A small and simple thing to support transitioning to Kura.

Our loose parts journey continues to offer exciting opportunities for exploration, curiosity and learning