As part of our Local Planning in the Kōwhai Room, we have been focusing on 'Animals'.
We have been looking at wild animals and farm animals and the tamariki have been loving sharing their experiences from home and outside the centre through photos sent to us.
We thought that we would extend their learning by having a 'Vet Day' and asking the children to bring in their stuffed animals from home. We facilitated an exciting environment with "computers", bandages, vet tools, syringes and even some vet-based checklists for the tamariki to use to make sure that their pets were as healthy as could be.
Some of our pets were, "Hurt" and bandages were the perfect way to make them, "All better" according to one of the children. Other pets were, "Sick" and Poppy thought giving them, "Medicine" through the syringes was the best way to help.
Other children were busy typing up information on the 'computers' and there was so much talk about what their animals were feeling. This was such a wonderful and interactive way for the children to develop their vocabularies, explore empathy, and bring real-world experiences into their play and develop their working theories about the world around them.
We were so proud of how well they shared the space and related to each other. What a great day in Kōwhai!