Koutu Playcentre

Koutu kids love to read!

That’s why we are so excited for New Zealand Children’s Book week and Playcentre Open Week next week.

On Monday we will be participating in the national read along, on Tuesday local author and doctor Callum Gilmour will be joining us, and on Friday we will be visiting Rotorua Library.

Come and join us to read and play next week!

What do you see when you look at your recycling?

Our tamariki see a helicopter, a train, rockets and binoculars!

Junk construction has been very popular lately. Our creative kids make all sorts of wonderful items with would-be waste. There is no limit to their imaginations 😄

Welcome back Koutu PC whanau for term three and an especially warm welcome for our new members, we can't wait to get to know you and your tamariki.
We kicked off the term with the old favourite - playdough! Today we experimented with making cars by adding milk bottle cap wheels and beads/bobbles for lights. We'll have the playdough ready again for tomorrow - who knows what we'll make next? If you'd like your littlies to be able to explore playdough without trampling it all through your carpet, come and visit us - we always love to see new faces!

Messy Play is the best but sometimes… the mess just feels too much.

My son loved this Moon Sand for an hour but clean up took 30 minutes!

If you want the fun and learning of messy play but not on your carpet, come along to Koutu Playcentre. We are back Monday 20 July at 9am!

We open Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays 9am-12.30pm, term time only.

P.S. Moon Sand is 8Tbsp flour or cornflour to 1Tbsp oil, food colouring optional. It’s great fun, but definitely puts the ‘messy’ in messy play 🤪

Whanau of all ages have been hard at work on our Matariki banner the last 2 weeks of term. The babies enjoyed some sensory play with paint, then our older tamariki filled in the gaps and glued stars together. Finally the adults assembled it into a night sky for our centre Matariki celebration.
Mānawatia ā Matariki!

Attention all admin superstars!

Our amazing Kaimahi is leaving us so Rotorua Playcentres are in need of a new Kaimahi. If you, or someone you know, would love to be a highly valued staff member at our centres and support us with all things admin, please check out the job vacancy here:

https://www.playcentre.org.nz/vacancies/kaimahi-rotorua-bay-of-plenty-playcentres/

Koutu Playcentre is CLOSED for the school holidays. We reopen Monday 20 July.

It can be hard finding fun things to do at home over the break. Here are some of our favourite school holiday ideas to inspire you over the winter break:

- a blanket fort is an absolute classic
- cardboard box creations for endless fun
- playdough. This recipe never fails https://aka.org.nz/homemade-playdough-recipe/
- a teddy bears picnic or tea party
- checking out the books and toys at the library and Rotorua Toy Library

Have a great break and see you next term 😄

The birds flocked to our tree to taste the delicious bird feeders our tamariki made from pine cones and bird seed.

The kids love watching the birds flutter around the gardens and enjoy the food hanging for them.

It's National Volunteer Week this week!

Since Playcentre is parent run, all of our parents are volunteers.

So, pop into Koutu Playcentre on Friday morning (9 - 12:30) to see how much fun it is to volunteer by playing with your children. 😃

Our tamariki love to create.

This “house” has cement made from sand and water and is painted in the most brilliant colours. I’d certainly love to live there!

What have your children created lately?