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Our new pets!
At BestStart Napier Central we have two new centre guinea pigs. After discussions around what we should call our guinea pigs the children decided that Matariki and Marmot would best suit them. We feel the names are very fitting as not only was it the celebration of Matariki we have two families from South Africa, one whom suggested that Marmot is South African for guinea pig. We celebrated by holding a special naming ritual followed by a lovely afternoon tea.
We purchased two special guinea pig hutches, one for the infant/toddler area and one for the kindy area so that all of our children can get to experience the guinea pigs.
The children have been really enjoying having centre pets and are learning the requirements and responsibilities around looking after animals, such as cleaning the hutches out daily and making sure that Matariki and Marmot get to have fresh vegetables from the garden, fresh water and pallets every day. These guinea pigs have also provided plenty of learning opportunities such as being gentle, learning to have empathy, having respect for nature and living creatures, to take responsibility for and learning to care for a pet. The children have fully embraced the guinea pigs and they have become a very big part of our centre whānau.