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Fostering relationships through gardening
At BestStart Bayfair, we have had months of roadworks on our street! This has meant daily machinery noise and road closures.
However, the team at Downer and the Tauranga City Council have come to the party, offering us hard hats and vests for the children, helping us cross the road when going on excursions, a digger to explore and today we got to help with planting to make the garden outside our centre extra special!
The children got to dig holes, put their plants in the ground and shovel the dirt and the mulch. There was a lot of praise and encouragement from the Downer team and some great gardening knowledge and skills were put on display from the children.
In Te Whariki, the benefits of gardening for children's learning can be found throughout the principles of empowerment, holistic development, family, community and relationships. Today especially, gardening fostered relationships with people, places and things and it fostered connections between the centre, family and community.
Thank you to Downer for thinking of us and working together with our centre to make lasting connections and memories for our children. As the children were leaving for the day they proudly showed their parents the plants in their beautiful garden!