LATEST STORIES
Exploring Space at BestStart Kensington Crossing
Inquiry learning and projects are a big part of the curriculum in the 4-year-old room at Beststart Kensington Crossing. Each term, the children brainstorm and vote for what they want to learn about. This term, they have decided to learn about space!
Since the tamariki voted on learning about Space/tuarangi, we have had a lot of learning moments from activities, games, and creative art. The tamariki enjoy looking through many books/pukapuka. Kaiako/teachers spend time sitting down with them reading the pages that interest the tamariki.
Together, kaiako and tamariki made the milky way out of gloop (cornflour and water) and theyhave been learning about the different planets in our solar system. We have been enjoying watching educational kid-friendly videos about our solar system planets. Did you know that the surface of Mars/Matawhero is a reddish colour because its soil has so much iron in it - it has gone rusty!
This learning has been extended and the tamariki have chosen which planet they wanted to create and have painted their own. They also drew themselves in their own rocket ships and flew to the stars. Because bi-cultural learning is a very important part of the curriculum, Rob has been Teaching the Pūrakau/cultural story of Maui capturing the sun and encouraging it to slow down, relating it to explaining the transition from short winter days to long summer days.