SEEN Learning Collective

We had lots of laughter at Drama Club today, with our different bird-inspired characters up to all sorts of cheeky antics!

It was special to hear children's personal stories about their encounters with different birds. We worked together to exaggerate the stories for dramatic effect, and comedic value.

I'm not sure I will ever be able to look at a parrot again without smiling 🥰

Laughter is such a powerful tool for building connection!

One thing I have noticed about resources is that the feel of an object is more important than the accuracy of what it represents.

Children are delighted to have access to crystals, china teapots, handcrafted items and natural materials. This gives a variety of textures and weights, and has a sense of "preciousness"
(is it just me or does the word precious always have to be read in Gollum's voice 😅)

Today my young storytellers at Seen Drama Club worked in small groups to create their own stories from this quite random (thoughtfully curated) assortment of props.

Stories featured dragons, monsters, a group of scally-wag thieves, and a cheeky sheep that ate all the money!

We don't need to have the perfect prop for every possible scenario. Props are there as an invitation

✨ to create interest and inspire imagination

✨ to serve as a symbol "hey let's pretend these pom poms are dragons eggs"

✨ And bonus points if they touch the heart, objects that ground us, that feel nice to handle and make what we are doing feel special

We have a few spots left, if you have a creative storyteller aged 5-9ish who would like to join us on Thursday afternoons for a little bit of magic

💚 Firstly because it never fails to bring squeals of delight. And I believe childhood should include experiences purely just for the joy of it.

💚 The wow factor! Helping children foster a relationship with science as an exciting subject, and showing the magic that exists in our world. (Am I allowed to use science and magic in the same paragraph 😅)

💚 Children get to be experts and share their previous knowledge and experiences. Man, learning can be full on sometimes! We can't be in unchartered territory all day. We are consolidating knowledge and building confidence.

💚 There is different learning to pull out. Today we were talking about actual volcanoes, not the chemistry at play. This was one activity, amongst volcano diagrams, baking lava cakes, constructing lego volcanos. Showing a concept in a few different ways builds deeper understanding of the idea. And our learners will each connect more strongly with different activities.

💚 And of course underneath it all, our activities serve as an opportunity to work together, share an experience and express our ideas.

Think this learning style would appeal to your child? Send us a message to find out more about our One Day School for quirky, creative kids. Operating in Rotorua and Pūtaruru.

Kia ora! I'm Emma

I was born in Mamaku, but grew up mostly in the Waikato, before moving to Rotorua in 2025.

I am a self-proclaimed quirky kid, creative dabbler, soon-to-be Homeschool Mum, and teacher at SEEN Learning Collective.

My favourite thing about our classes is seeing the friendships that blossom when we bring like-minded people together to create community. There is something so special about that moment when someone enters our space and finally feels seen. I love witnessing the instant connection that follows, when one quirky kid meets another, who "gets" them.

I love my job! I wear many hats at SEEN. Teaching is my real calling, and the passion I have for our kids motivates me to push through the admin eventually 😅

Anyone who knows me, will tell you, I love to talk!

So if you are keen to learn more about our new class opening up in Pūtaruru, feel free to give me a ring. I am a 90's kid, I even answer the phone to unknown numbers 😉

It's much better to connect with a proper chat, and then you don't get buried in my emails. (Opps.)

☎️ 022 595 8209

Thanks VIP Plumbing and Gas Rotorua for donating a great assortment of plumbing equipment. VIP Plumbing & Gas Rotorua

These are a great open-ended resource that encouraged problem-solving, creativity and collaboration.

At SEEN One-day school our children worked together to create car tunnels and transport water through a series of pipes. The equipment has also been used for obstacle courses, hut building, giant marble runs and extending our sand-pit play.

This is storytelling!

Literacy doesn't always require a pen and paper, it can look like arranging natural treasures on the deck.

Here a child has
-created a setting
-made a plan
-described what's happening
-considered who might live here, and what happens next

It is so important we give children opportunities to share stories, without the pressure to write.

Learning to write is pretty complicated. We have to spell words that often don't make sense, (thanks English language) remember which way the b or the d faces, don't forget your capital letters, finger spaces, sentence structure etc.

And all that can get in the way of a good story!

Let's inspire young storytellers by encouraging them to make puppet shows, create dramatic skits, record stop-motion movies, find pictures in the clouds, play make-believe games or explore objects and places that let their imaginations run wild.

Think this approach would suit your child? Check out our One Day School and Drama Club classes, designed to nurture children's creativity.

Last term at Drama Club, I set up a café and provided an assortment of costumes and props.

As our improv scene began, different characters and storylines quickly emerged. A family celebrated a birthday at a café that only served chicken in various styles, money was stolen, food was delivered cold to a disgruntled customer, and a chef was fired… just to summarise a few of the main storylines! 

This is one of my favourite things about junior drama.

Young children are already full of ideas, stories, and creativity. Our role is to provide space for them to share those ideas, and help them stay connected to that gorgeous playfulness as they grow.

In our junior drama group, we use process drama as a natural extension of imaginative play. Children build confidence, share their ideas, respond to others, and step into different roles.

It’s such a joy to watch their stories come to life.

SEEN Drama
Thursdays @ Lynmore Scout Hall
3.30–4.30
Ages 5–8

Message me to find out more.

How often do we interrupt children before they are ready to move on?

A child is deeply immersed in building something, working through an idea, or reaching the point where the play has become more complex, and then it’s time to pack away, because the timetable says so.

When we do that, we are taking away their autonomy. They have to stop now, because we’ve said so. We’ve decided that the next activity on the plan holds more value than the one they are fully engaged in, which is rarely true.

The richest learning usually happens when children are absorbed in what they’re doing. Perhaps they have run into a problem and need more time to sit with it. Or maybe they are in that sweet spot, where creativity and ideas are flowing. “You can come back to it” I say, as if it’s that easy to just pick up where you’ve left off. Oops!

This is even more frustrating for neurodivergent minds. We say they struggle with paying attention, staying on-task (usually not their chosen task) and don’t cope well with transitions. And yet here they are hyper-focused on a task, and we interrupt!

Ironically, it is our own lack of flexibility that demands them to be flexible. We’ve carefully prepared an activity and can’t let it go in that moment.

I say all this with compassion, and a lot of gratitude to be teaching in a space with small numbers and far less pressure to work through a checklist of curriculum outcomes.

Even still, I don’t always get it right.

Research suggests it can take around 10 to 25 minutes of uninterrupted focus for children to reach a state of deep engagement. If we’re moving on every 30 minutes, they may only get a few minutes in that flow state before being asked to stop.

At SEEN, we reduce transitions to allow children to work through an idea from start to finish, moving on only when they are ready. This is more effective for learning, and, more importantly, sends them the message that their work and their choices matter.