Atawhai Childcare

The morning air embraced us with a gentle welcome as our Atawhai tamariki wandered beneath the majestic, vibrant canopy of our beloved local tree trust. Each step echoed as they crunched the leaves beneath their feet, a symphony of nature’s quiet joy.

The golden sunlight poured through the swaying branches, blanket placed out on the cool, dew-kissed grass, with their packed lunchboxes at the ready on this serene Friday morning.

Have a beautiful restful weekend e te whānau 💕

Kia ora Whānau
💃❄️ We didn’t let the chilly weather stop us from having fun this week! Our tamariki loved getting up and moving with some energetic dancing, filling the room with smiles, laughter, and lots of happy energy. 🎶
Another favourite activity was the🫧✨ Bubble fun that brought so much joy this week! What made it even more special was hearing a couple of our little ones proudly say one of their very first few words – "bubbles!" 🥹💙
Watching children build their confidence through language🎨✨ is such a rewarding part of their learning journey. As they excitedly asked for more bubbles, there were smiles, laughter, and lots of chasing, popping, and giggling!
It's amazing how a simple activity can encourage communication, movement, and shared moments of happiness. 🌈🫧
Whaea Raj introduced a fun new painting tool using five earbuds bundled together, giving our tamariki the opportunity to explore a different way of creating art.
The children enjoyed experimenting with this unique painting technique, making colourful patterns and prints while developing their creativity and fine motor skills. It was wonderful to see their curiosity, excitement, and confidence grow as they discovered how everyday materials can be used in new and imaginative ways.

This week in Tui Room, our tamariki have been busy exploring, creating, and learning through a variety of exciting experiences.

Some of our tamariki enjoyed a bus trip to Rotorua library, where they explored the library, discovered new books, sang songs, played chess, and had fun at the playground. These experiences supported their curiosity, confidence, communication skills, and sense of belonging as they connected with their wider community.

Our 4-year-old tamariki also had a cool Bike Day, practising their riding skills while building balance, coordination, perseverance, and confidence.

Back at Atawhai, our tamariki got creative with Whaea Katie by making bumble bees using recycled egg trays and paper. Through this hands-on activity, they explored creativity, strengthened their fine motor skills, and discovered how recycled materials can be transformed into something (ataaahua) beautiful.

It has been a joyful week filled with exploration, creativity, movement, and meaningful learning. We can’t wait to see what next week brings! 💛🌱

Over the past few weeks, the Tui room tamariki have been learning about the meaning of Matariki… through song, dance, arts and crafts and story telling. We finished off our Matariki journey by having an open day for our whanau to be apart of the celebration with us.

We had a blast being with our whanau and all the activities that were involved in the afternoon. A great day spent at Atawhai!
Mānawatia a Matariki! ⭐️🌠🌌

This week, our tamariki in Kiwi Room.enjoyed exploring colours, textures, and sensory experiences in different ways.

Outside with Whaea Vee, tamariki used droppers to squeeze and drip coloured dye onto cotton pads, watching the colours spread and blend. They also enjoyed painting with brushes, exploring colour, and expressing their creativity. These experiences supported fine motor development, hand-eye coordination, and an understanding of cause and effect.

Inside with Whaea Katie, tamariki investigated sensory bottles by pulling ribbons and strings from inside. They showed curiosity and concentration as they discovered what was hidden within each bottle. For our younger pēpi, the activity also encouraged standing, balancing, and stretching as they reached, pulled, and explored.

It has been wonderful to see our tamariki learning through hands-on exploration, creativity, and play. ❤️

Also we had a PJ day to celebrate one of our kiwi room friends, Levi's birthday.

Tui room children have shown how patient, understanding and cooperative they can be this week as both the children and teachers discovered how creative they are with face painting. Whaea Katie, from kiwi room and our student kaiako Whaea Fae gave children a choice of what design or character they wanted, once picked they set about creating it. Whaea Kathy and Whaea Hine soon discovered their talent for face painting, creating designs from "copying" the images chosen. Thanks to all the parents who also waited for their children's face/body painting to be completed as some children waited all day for their turns.

This week in Kiwi Room, tamariki explored sharing, cooperation, and caring through a variety of shared experiences.

We saw beautiful tuakana-teina relationships as tamariki played alongside one another and our pēpi, shared resources, and even cared for and shared their cuddly friends. These interactions helped build friendships, empathy, and a sense of belonging within our Kiwi Room whānau.

For World Environment Day, Whaea Jenny brought in some wonderful resources that inspired open-ended exploration. Tamariki enjoyed rolling, stacking, balancing, and using the materials in imaginative ways.

Whaea Vee supported tamariki to explore a sensory planting experience, caring for our environment. Through hands-on exploration of the soil, tamariki were encouraged to connect with and care for Papatūānuku.

Using recycled materials, Whaea Katie created two Environment buses for tamariki to enjoy. With steering wheels in hand, tamariki embarked on exciting bus adventures, engaging in imaginative and cooperative play as they travelled together and shared ideas.

Through these experiences, tamariki were developing communication skills, creativity, problem-solving abilities, cooperation, and an appreciation for the natural world.

What a wonderful week of learning, exploring, and caring for one another and our environment! 🌏💚

Happy Mother’s Day to all our Mums, Aunties,Nans, Sisters and to all mother figures. We hope your day is full of love and happiness ❤️

This week in the Kiwi Room, tamariki enjoyed Mother’s Day activities by painting wooden spoons with their fingers and thumbs and making special cards for their mums. We also captured their beautiful photos to make the day extra special. 💖

These experiences supported sensory exploration, creativity, and fine motor development while celebrating the love between tamariki and their mums. 🌸

The Tui room made yummy Afghan cookies for their mothers ❤️

Now that our carpentry table has been 'topped up,' Whaea Cheryl decided to set it up for a planned activity. Children who participated needed to follow her safety instructions. Throughout the day, children took reasonable risks, shared ideas on how to use the carpentry tools, worked together on projects like making monster trucks and tractors and reminded each other on what the "rules" were when you wanted to explore and create.
We also spent time at the Toi Ohomai Recreation Centre having fun developing and strengthening our ball skills