Poipoia te kakano kia puawai” Nurture the seed and it will blossom.

Here at BestStart Wolverton, we love teaching and guiding our tamariki to engage in and experience gardening, as we know how important this knowledge is. In our Karekare preschool room, we enjoy a garden-to-table approach to learning. It embodies two of our favorite curriculum areas, science, and nature, and empowers our tamariki to continue learning and growing through meaningful connections in their worlds. What looks like, feels like, and seems like play as our tamariki get their hands dirty, plant seeds, water plants, and pick leaves, is actually critical learning and development unfolding and building on their own baskets of knowledge. 

Engaging children in regular and ongoing gardening practices strongly supports our tamariki and their development through a range of learning opportunities. Our approaches to garden-to-table learning can have a transformative and lifelong impact on their hauroa and connection with nature and Papatūānuku. We work towards embodying and embracing aspects of the rongo framework, supporting our tamariki to learn about their role as kaitiaki, while nurturing and strengthening our relationship with Papatūānuku through viewing our environment as the third teacher. 

Our kaiako approaches aim to support, observe and guide our tamariki to develop an affinity for and passion for the care of Papatūānuku and aim to build an awareness of individual and a collective sense of responsibility for the environment and our community. So what does this actually mean? Gardening allows our tamariki to create and connect with nature and one another. 

We have noticed that when provided with regular gardening experiences, our tamariki are nurtured, inspired, and motivated learners. Gardening helps them to connect in real ways with the world around them. In doing so, they develop respect and care for living things, supporting their emotional competence to continue growing as they experience excitement, disappointment, satisfaction, frustration, and joy. 

Kaiako focuses on providing tangible ways for tamariki to learn and this provides a great sense of calm and peacefulness. It fosters extended concentration skills and strategies for positive self-talk and active reasoning. This supports tamariki to regulate behavior as they learn all about rules and boundaries, respecting others, our land, and responsibility for their own plants, as well as teaching their peers about care and respect too. 

Gardening provides a holistic approach to learning and connects our tamariki with emerging math, science, preliteracy, and problem-solving skills and strategies. We foster emerging social skills as our tamariki learn how to work in teams, take turns, share resources, and are empowered to use discussion and observation to support others and their learning or development of solutions. Patience and hard work create ownership and reward as our tamariki gain a sense of achievement and whakahī in what they have nurtured to grow. 

Kaiako takes this opportunity to foster an awareness of the changes in plants, and when they are ready for harvesting. Once again, what looks like, feels like, and seems like play is our learning unfolding and growing. Through this, our tamariki gain a deeper understanding of nutrition and providing the right foods for their growing bodies. Kaiako uses discussion, observation, and guidance as our tamariki prepare delicious, nutritious, and warming meals to share and enjoy. For some of our tamariki, this will be the first time they have experienced what it means to grow some of their favorite foods. “Whatungaronga te tangata, toitū to whenua” As people disappear from sight, the land remains. 

At BestStart Wolverton, when tamariki have opportunities to learn in the garden, they are developing important life-long skills. Our aim is to enhance each of our tamariki’s mana and sense of kaitiakitanga so that they develop their knowledge, learn about respect, develop humility, and foster a deeper understanding of their contribution to the world. BestStart Wolverton Street - 'Where we empower minds to think, hands to create, and hearts to love.