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The Olympics at BestStart Totara Park
A big interest this month has been the Olympics. Tamariki (children) would come in and have conversations around what they had seen on TV at home and we even tuned in to watch some of the final events like the rowing when Lisa Carrington got New Zealand three gold medals. The tamariki had so much excitement watching this that we thought what a great opportunity it would be to host our own mini-Olympics.
The tamariki had so much excitement and couldn’t wait for the games to begin. We did a mixture of events such as long jump into the sandpit, hurdles and a cycle race, the activities provided were like what we had been watching at home and in the centre.
Tamariki were encouraged to provide support for their peers both physical and verbal. We focused on celebrating each other’s efforts not by results but by participation, determination, and perseverance. It was awesome to see the encouragement all the tamariki showed and even how they would mimic things they had seen, like the cycle race’s, trying to stay close behind their peers then picking an opportunity to overtake where possible.
To end our Olympics, we held a little closing ceremony where tamariki were encouraged to sing our national anthem, it was so neat to watch the tamariki trying to copy the words and sing with so much passion, it was a great way to end a fun filled week of Olympic learning and exploring!