LATEST STORIES
Child Led Trip to Mum's Cafe
Our friend Maia in the Tōtara Preschool room has been excited to tell us about her Mum opening a new cafe in Ashhurst. We love to support local businesses, so we put a flyer up on our community noticeboard to encourage our whānau to go and visit the Village Coffee and Co. Cafe. When tamariki or kaiako have been out there on the weekends, they excitedly share their experience with us at the centre.
This has sparked a lot of interest and the preschool rooms have been engaging in lots of role-play experiences. One of our favourites has been playing shops and enacting hospitality scenarios (serving and eating food). We were talking about where we could go on our next van trip and Maia had a great idea... why don't we go to Village Coffee and Co.? We knew that other tamariki would love to be a part of that adventure so we asked Maia's Mum, Niki, when it would be a good time.
Niki was super excited for us to visit her at the new cafe, and she suggested we could have a tea party while we were there. Maia started planning what friends to invite and decided it was a Girl's Trip where everyone should dress up like a Princess. Ash, Pip and 6 Tōtara Princesses went to the Ashhurst Village Coffee and Co. cafe. Maia proudly showed off her family's new venture. Niki had set up an amazing tea party where the table was specially reserved for BestStart Kelvin Grove. The girls enjoyed drinking fluffies and eating fruit and fries before taking turns at cupcake decorating. Niki had set up different colours of icing and so many delicious decorations to choose from.
Afterwards, the girls had fun playing in the special kids’ area where we saw some more dramatic play in action. The girls were passionate about re-enacting their café experience. Next, they presented Niki and her team with a homemade card to thank them for their wonderful hospitality before heading back to the centre.
Here at BestStart Kelvin Grove, we encourage children to lead their own learning and we help their ideas to become a reality. We ensure children feel valued when they communicate their thoughts with us and it is always so much for teachers when we follow their lead!
Celebrating a local business and organising a van trip to the new café is another example of living our vision, "At one with child, whānau, and community”.