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The Missing Piece
Panga | Puzzles are always a hit here at BestStart Kelvin Street, from our pēpē | babies right through to our big four-year-olds.
Our tamariki love taking on a puzzling challenge and completing them, giving them a sense of pride in their successes. They are seeing themselves as capable and competent! We have a range of puzzles for tamariki to solve that cater to different strengths, interests, and abilities.
From jigsaws, three dimensional puzzles, shape and space recognition activities and maze problems, there is something for everyone! Puzzles support tamariki to develop their perseverance and patience as they solve the puzzle they are working on. Teachers encourage this learning by allowing the tamariki to do the puzzle at their own pace, offering ideas and support, taking an interest without taking over. Handling and manipulating the pieces help the small muscle development in their hands. The fine, controlled movements they use to place each piece and the same motor skills they use when learning to write.
Puzzles also help tamariki develop their hand-eye coordination, helping them master their movements and gain control of their body. Tamariki learn to reason and deal with frustration, as they discover that things don’t always work out they way they think. Teachers are there to support children in dealing with this and helping them to accept that they will make mistakes and that it’s all part of the learning process.
The tamariki are awesome at supporting each other as well, encouraging their e hoa | friends, working on puzzles together and sharing their successes. Matching, sorting, mastering the mental and the physical, and having fun – puzzle play has it all!