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Month of learning for our tamariki
This month in the Kahurangi room, we have had a lot going on within the room. Due to it being cold in the winter, we have brought the outdoors indoors.
We have brought sand under cover and rice and cups within our indoor space. This extends the tamariki fine and gross motor skills. Relationships are forming with our new tamariki starting, and by having group activities, this is extended further.
We have had lots of messy play with squeals of delight from the children and literacy and mathematics with reading, counting and making different things. Can't wait to see what the tamariki explore in the following months.
During the month of July, Pounamu children worked on three dispositions named communication, exploration and belongingness. Their favourite experiences have been cooking with Jinny, sensory play and shopping games.
We supported tamariki interests by providing them with various experiences, such as using the little chef cookie maker they absolutely loved to make their cookies and helping their Kaiako and Jinny create flower shapes for their cookies.
Cooking encourages children's thinking and sense of belongingness by making connections to home, communication, problem-solving, and creativity. It also allows children to use their knowledge and apply it by counting, measuring, following a sequence, following directions, and cause and effect.
Cooking with kids provides practical experience with many essential skills such as following directions and measuring. Getting involved in cooking also support them in developing fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, and even early concepts of math and science.
Pounamu tamariki also loved playing the shopping game this month and surprised their teachers by following instructions, matching the pictures and filling up their shopping trolley with the right grocery list items. We also introduced a new game of tidying up with things that some of the toddlers really enjoy picking up the toys using the tongs and helping to put their toys away after play.
In the kawakawa room this month, we have been working on building relationships as it's a common goal majority of our tamariki share. We have been providing numerous activities where they are encouraged to learn alongside their peers.
The tamariki have been exploring the sandpit where they share their baking tools and get creative baking delicious goods. They have also been enjoying working in their "shop "and having their peers pretend as their customers, which has been great to see.
They have been enjoying building towers with their peers and comparing who is taller, and lastly, reading books to each other and interrupting what is happening in the pictures from their point of view.