Tawa Central Kindergarten

At Tawa Central Kindergarten our garden is flourishing just in time for Matariki. 💫
🥕🥔🍠🍆
As we celebrate matariki, tamariki have been busy planting, caring for, and observing the growth in our garden. We even still have the odd caterpillars.
These hands - on - experiences help foster a sense of connection to the natural world and the values of kaitiakitanga.

FUN IN THE SUN!

Today tamariki asked for water in the trough "blue water" they said! We grabbed one of the pipes out of the sandpit so they could tip the water down. I asked "what if we connected the water troughs together!!?". The tamariki then had to problem solve and worked together collecting more pipes and persevering through trial and error to get them to connect! Ka pai tamariki!

So much fun was had scooping, tipping and pouring, and some tamariki even made magical potions!! It is always amazing seeing what the tamariki think up and create with open ended resources!!

☀️The sun is SHINING at kindy today, time for us to explore through play!☀️

Today tamariki got to explore texture and colour mixing through cornflour, colored water and pipettes!

The tamariki were amazed and said:

"Look at the colours!"
"Wowwwwww its going slimy"
"It's all gooey"
"It's like a rainbow"

They are strengthening their fine motor skills squeezing the water up and out, creating working theories, learning science concepts, and exploring all their senses crumbling and mixing the gloup with their hands and putting it all over kaiako Toni!

So much to learn while having FUN!

The tamariki enjoyed learning about Samoan culture through traditional story of Fa'a Samoa and how the coconut came to Samoa.
The tamariki had the opportunity to see, touch, and taste fresh coconut 🥥, exploring it's texture, smell and flavour.

Kaiako have had a very productive teacher only day today, connecting as a team, reviewing procedures, completing compliance, tidying the resource cupboard and most importantly refreshing the environment for tamariki! Refreshing the learning environment helps create a stimulating, inclusive, safe, and responsive space where tamariki can thrive and continue developing their knowledge, skills, and confidence. We can't wait to see how the tamariki react tomorrow!

Over the last few weeks our tamariki have been busy creating and learning about our Matariki stars. It has been wonderful to see the curiosity, creativity and learning as we celebrate this important Kaupapa together. 🌟⭐️💫✨️

Today at Tawa Central Kindergarten we set up an invitation to paint outside on a blank canvas. This simple invitation encouraged creativity, imagination and self-expression. As the tamariki experimented with colour and movement. It was wonderful to see their ideas unfold as they worked together, and shared space.
Sometimes the simplest materials create the richest opportunities for learning and creatvity.

Today we were so lucky to welcome Project Jonah. The tamariki had an amazing time learning all about whales, how special they are to our oceans and what we can do to help protect these beautiful creatures.
What a special learning experience for our tamariki.

At Tawa Central the kaiako saw a growing interest in motorcycles So we reached out to Shaun who brought his motorcycle to share with the tamariki.

The tamariki were excited to explore, ask questions , and learn more as they looked closely at the parts and the safety gear they have to wear to keep their bodies safe. They also listened to the loud motor.

These experiences highlight how powerful the community connections can be in extending the children's learning .

A huge thank you to Shaun for taking the time to support our children's learning.

( more photos on storypark soon)

The tamariki had so much fun creating their own kites and using the parachute, testing them outside to see how Tawhirimatea (wind) helped them fly. This learning encourged creativity problem -solving , and helped us connect with the natural world around us.