Active play is at the heart of learning at BestStart Kauri Flats. By fostering gross motor skills and movement, we help tamariki develop strength, confidence, and resilience while supporting their overall health and happiness.
At BestStart Kauri Flats, we prioritise children’s wellbeing and strive to promote learning in all areas. We believe that physical activity enhances children’s mental, emotional, and physical health.
Our team is currently focused on fostering gross motor skills across all age groups. This enhances children’s physical strength, supports their ability to control their bodies, and encourages them to take manageable risks during play.
Active play is vital for children’s heart, bone, and muscle health. It develops essential gross motor skills, balance, coordination, and movement. It also promotes social interaction, communication skills, confidence, and self-esteem, while allowing children to make their own play choices, solve problems, and create games and activities.
During these experiences, we observe children safely releasing anger and frustrations, while high-energy tamariki channel their energy positively. Active play enhances fitness, health, happiness, and overall wellbeing.
In alignment with Te Whāriki – Exploration, our goal is for children to gain confidence in and control of their bodies. The outcome we seek is for tamariki to move confidently and challenge themselves physically (te wero ā-tinana). This learning experience also connects to Gardner’s theories, which emphasise the role of physical play in children’s learning. Through play and creative exploration, tamariki engage with and explore various cognitive concepts.