During the School Holidays BestStart Te Whariki runs a special program throughout our centre.
These holidays the nursery team developed a two-week program based on supporting children to build connections between people places and things that are important to them and our place in Lincoln.
This is an important factor in our localised curriculum, to support children to develop strength in our core values whakatoi (joy), whanaungatanga (relationships), Kaitiakitanga (guardianship) and manakitanga (nurturing and care).
Over the two weeks there was a blend of activities supporting children and their interests and fostering curiosity as well as expanding further into understanding our community. First the children and their interests were highlighted and we connected learning to our focus of “ko wai au” - Who am I. It extends their current learning through to intentional experiences that continue to support this.
We had a dress up day for “I want to be....” opening up opportunities and conversations about what they might want to be when they are older. There was a games day where children could share games they enjoy from home. These special days allow children to share manaakitanga and joy with others as they learn to cooperate and listen to each other through conversation and play.
As we looked wider, we planned excursion days where we could look deeper into our local environment of Lincoln. Exploring the autumn landscape of our local streets and taking a hikoi to Slinky the Rock Snake. We walked past diggers and construction occurring at the local school and had our own Digger and Construction Day to explore what this looks like.
These experiences support children to learn about whanaungatanga and how things interconnect as well as kaitiakitanga and looking after our special places so we have them for many years to come. We finished off the fun with a kiwiana food day with a classic kiwi sausage sizzle – celebrating some classic kiwi culture through food.
One of the joys of the School Holiday program is seeing how it develops across the different age groups in the Centre, supporting and enhancing the learning program already in place, continuing to foster our localised curriculum and what is important here.