Maungatapu Preschool

Meet the newest member of our Maungatapu Preschool whānau… Michelangelo! 🐢🐢💚

We are so excited to welcome our new little friend, Michelangelo, to our preschool! 🐢 He is settling into his beautiful new home, and over the coming weeks we’ll be giving him plenty of time to feel safe and comfortable in his new environment.

As with all living things, Michelangelo needs a little patience, kindness, and respect while he gets to know us. Our kaiako will gradually introduce him to the tamariki through calm, supervised experiences, helping them learn about caring for animals and showing manaaki for all living creatures.

A little favour for our whānau:
When dropping off or collecting your tamariki, could you please help us by ensuring children don’t climb on, lean over, or touch Michelangelo’s enclosure. This will help him feel secure as he settles into his new home and keep him safe and stress-free.

We can’t wait to share Michelangelo’s journey with you all and watch the special connections that grow between him and our tamariki. 🐢💚🌿

Beep, beep! Our new truck has officially rolled into preschool, and our tamariki couldn’t be more excited! 💛

This sturdy new addition is ready for countless adventures, from transporting treasures and loose parts to inspiring imaginative play and teamwork. Every load it delivers will be building strong muscles, problem-solving skills, creativity, and lots of smiles!

We can’t wait to see where our little drivers take us next!

Tui Room Adventure to Ōpūpū Park!

What a fantastic day out exploring our local taiao! Today our Tui tamariki enjoyed a wonderful hikoi to Ōpūpū Park, where we planned to spend time discovering the estuary, exploring the playground, and connecting with the natural world around us. 🍃🌊 unfortunately without notice the park was closed! But how lucky are we to have Te Wati park right next to where we were going!

The tamariki showed incredible curiosity, confidence, and teamwork as they walked together, observed their surroundings, and shared a special picnic morning tea in the fresh air. There were plenty of smiles, opportunities for physical challenge, and moments of wonder as we explored and extended our learning within our community.

These experiences help strengthen our children’s sense of belonging, connection to place, and appreciation for the environment while building resilience, independence, and friendships. ❤️

Ka mau te wehi, Tui Room! Thank you to our amazing kaiako and whānau who supported this special adventure. We can’t wait for our next exploration!

Rainy days bring so much magic! Today our tamariki embraced the wet weather by creating rain catchers and exploring the wonders of rainbows. As the raindrops fell, we watched, wondered, and discovered how rain helps our world grow. The excitement on little faces as they spotted colours, collected rainwater, and explored the changing sky was pure joy!

He rā ua, he rā ngahau! Rainy days are perfect for learning, creating, and connecting with nature. 💙🌦️

What an incredible week we’ve had!

Our tamariki have been busy building strong bodies and minds through lots of heavy work, rolling tyres, building obstacle courses, pushing, pulling, and working together. These experiences help develop strength, coordination, perseverance, and teamwork while having loads of fun! 💪🛞

We’ve also continued our Matariki journey, exploring the beautiful whetū (stars) and learning about the stories, values, and connections they bring to our world. ✨

Adding to the excitement, we’ve been discovering the letter J—jumping, jiggling, and hunting for words that start with this joyful letter!

Ka mau te wehi, tamariki mā! We are so proud of the curiosity, creativity, and enthusiasm our learners bring every day. 🌿😊

Celebrating Tupuārangi in our Pēpi Room ✨🌟

As part of our Matariki journey, our pēpi have been exploring Tupuārangi, the whetū connected to everything that comes from above—the birds, fruits, and foods gathered from the trees and skies.

Our tamariki created bird feeders to care for our manu, planted strawberry seedlings, and made a delicious blueberry and chia seed jam. They proudly spread their homemade jam onto scrolls for afternoon tea, enjoying the fruits of their learning together.

We also explored the zesty taste of fresh lemons, with plenty of curious expressions and puckered smiles along the way! 🍋😊

Through these hands-on experiences, our pēpi are building connections with the natural world, learning where our food comes from, and embracing the values and stories of Matariki.

🌿🐦 Tupuārangi reminds us to appreciate the abundance provided by nature above us and the importance of caring for our environment.

Matariki mā Puanga — a time of reflection, connection, and celebration. ✨

He mahi ngahau, he mahi ako! 🌟🏃‍♂️

Today our tamariki became obstacle course designers, creating their own challenges and testing their ideas through play. Working together, they used creativity, problem-solving, and teamwork to design courses that involved balancing, jumping, crawling, climbing, and moving their bodies in different ways.

Through this experience, tamariki strengthened their tinana (physical wellbeing), developed confidence in their abilities, and showed incredible perseverance as they navigated each challenge. We saw lots of manaakitanga, encouraging one another, and whanaungatanga as children collaborated and shared ideas.

As tamariki challenged themselves and celebrated their successes, they were building not only their physical skills but also their resilience, confidence, and sense of who they are as capable learners.

“Mā te huruhuru ka rere te manu” – Adorn the bird with feathers so it may fly. 🕊️