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Kiwi Summer Fun

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At BestStart MacDonald Street, we are lucky enough to live in one of the sunniest spots in New Zealand and what better way to celebrate this than with “Kiwi Summer Fun” activities.

In our Te Tipu room, we have set up many fun water activities to help us cool down on the hot Summer days. Our babies love the water and it has been so rewarding watching their confidence grow.

One of the activites they really enjoy is the sprinkler mat. Many of our children were a bit apprehensive at first but soon realized that jumping on the mat would create huge sprinkles of water and this resulted in many giggles and wet faces. Another favorite is the water trough and here we are able to introduce different textures, colors and concepts for the tamariki to explore.

Our centre has resources that are thoughtfully placed in or by water to encourage exploration. Children practice their hand-eye coordination as they pour water into containers. Providing different sized vessels helps children refine their skills as they learn to master their movements.

Children learn maths concepts like measuring, estimating and volume, full and empty. Adults can ask how full the container is and children learn new words such as half full as they come to understand the concepts.

Through conversations with adults and other children, they consider ideas or concepts like heavy/light, sink/ float, shallow/ deep, absorption/non absorption, frozen/liquid. They figure out that water can push and move objects, water can clean things, water evaporates in the sun, water can be frozen and then melts.

Playing with water provides many opportunities to practice social skills through interactions with other children and teachers. The chatter around what they can do and how they can work together is always something you’ll hear around the water trough.

 For more information on learning with water play visit BestStart's 16 Areas of Play