In the Tui room, tamariki explored water play and small-world activities using tweezers to strengthen fine motor skills, coordination, and social development. These open-ended experiences nurture curiosity, creativity, and early problem-solving.
In the Tui room, our recent tuff tray learning experiences have been full of exploration, enjoyment, and learning. We set up a water play activity using a variety of resources—the tamariki were instantly engaged, splashing joyfully and interacting with the different textures and movements of water. There were moments of shared joy as tamariki discovered that splashing the water made ripples.
Another provocation set up was using small-world resources including tweezers, little animals, vehicles, and bowls. Using the tweezers to pick up the animals and vehicles and place them into bowls helps to strengthen fine motor skills and hand–eye coordination. This kind of purposeful play encourages tamariki to refine their pincer grip, an important foundation for later tasks like writing and self-help skills.
During learning activities like these, our tamariki are using their imaginations, demonstrating early problem-solving skills, and developing social skills as they play with and alongside one another, learning to share their resources and space.
These rich, open-ended learning experiences support learning across multiple areas while nurturing curiosity and creativity. We look forward to building on this interest with new provocations in the tuff tray to further support development and extend engagement in fun and meaningful ways.