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A great month at BestStart Papakura
During the month of March we extended the interest of sensory play from last month as our toddlers absolutely love it.
There has been a great interest in dramatic play along with cooking and baking. So we supported these both interests in various areas by setting up the experiences and environment to keep up with the curiosity of toddlers. We welcomed a few new children to start with us in the Pounamu room. Providing sensory experiences has helped them settle and keep them engaged. Tamariki have been working together developing friendships, helping each other to figure solutions and learning problem solving skills. They had fun discovering the bugs from the frozen jelly, painting with ice blocks, making cupcakes with play dough, making volcanoes in the sand pit, baking play dough and sand cakes for each other, making coffees for their teachers and so on.
We also celebrated St. Patrick's day by dressing up in green along with having cup cakes with green icing and exploring green experiences. We loved the Indian festival of colours called Holi this month as well as it was so much fun to get messy with paint and colours.
In the Kahurangi Room this month we have welcomed a few new children into our whaanau.
We have been settling them in with sensory activities and with cuddles and quality time spent with them. We have transitioned a few over to toddlers, due to them turning two so I turn we have had lots of cake and birthday candles.
Within the room we have had music and movement through our mat times, which the children love and we have noticed language and communication improving due to this.
We have had sand and water play to develop their sensory development and fine motor skills. We are learning about self help skills and caring for others within our room.
In the Kawakawa Room this month we have been focusing on self help skills , friendship building , be school ready as well as science.
The tamariki have been really enjoying exploring science , they have loved looking through the magnifying glasses , learning about all the different bugs and insects and having conversations with friends about this interest. We have had a lot of new tamariki joining the preschool room from the toddlers room so we have been encouraging them to work on their self help skills and improving their independence.
The tamariki have also been enjoying the indoor carpentry area they have lived making creations for the teachers and expressing themselves through this activity.
This has been a great month and the tamariki have been very involved and engaged.