It has been a great week as we were all in mood of the Diwali celebration. We had few parents who came to help making sweets and doing heena on teacher's hand. Teachers and children were able to participate in bollywood dance, Rangoli making, and Indian dress up. We had so much fun having yummy indian sweets and savouries. I was amazed to see that ...

​Let spring begin. We started the month with the chidren planting some seeds, some vegies and some flowers, the children have been able to water these and watch them grow.  Our Nga Teina rooms planning was just focused on spring and everything that happens during spring, like all the baby lambs that are born and the daffidols th...

The Future Ferns Junior tamariki have been enjoying setting themselves their own challenges in physical activities.Reaching the top of the different climbing apparatuses, making up ball games and creating their own obstacle courses inside and outside too. Positive social interactions, communication and language skills and a whole lot of fun is bein...

In the Rising Stars room the children have been showing interest in physical activity. Climbing, riding bikes and scooters, running, walking, jumping, crawling, rolling, dancing are some of physical skills that the rising stars children have been displaying. As infants and toddlers grow, their determination to master movement, balance, and fine- an...

This month we celebrated Marne's 5th Birthday milestone, and what a 5 wonderful years it's been. We have celebrated many of your tamariki milestones, their first steps, first words, making friends and our graduates journey to Primary Schools. On Monday 25th we celebrated at the centre with a visit from Lill bo peeps with animals and pony rides. We ...

   Celebrated since 1975, Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori – Māori Language Week recognizes and celebrates the Māori language as a unique cultural treasure for all Aotearoa. This year Nga Wiki o Te Reo Maori will take place on 11-17 September. Simply saying "Kia ora" or "Morena" was the catalyst to celebrating Te Reo Maori in our centre.Our ka...

Our Tamariki enjoyed a day filled with balls, balls, and more balls.There was so much fun and activity happening that every child was kicking, hitting, bouncing, throwing, rolling, and catching balls.The Tamariki really showed sportsmanship and togetherness through turn taking, problem solving, and just having fun.So much learning and development h...

Over the past couple weeks our Tamariki/children here at Kids Count Tawa have been enjoying the amazing world of Dinosaurs.Through toy figurines, researching them on the computer, looking at books, to song and dance.This interest has spread across to both our little boys and girls.Which has also helped our Tamariki/ children to learn the names...

Early literacy really matters Early literacy really matters and the best way is to encourage this is through the love of books. Children will let you know their favourite book and will ask you to read it again and again and again. Show delight in the fact they enjoy dramatic pauses and repeating phrases as they can join in the story telling and the...

​In the Puawai room, we love to sing and do actions! Our children/Tamariki have gotten very good at watching the teachers and imitating the actions that we do.Some children/Tamariki even ask for a specific song using key action, which is a great example of non-verbal communication in action.Our favourites at the moment are 'roly poly', 'kina kina' ...

  Today a couple of our older children went to visit a community shop called "FREE FOR ALL".The shop is community base that gives free stuff such as furniture, clothing, cutlery, toys, and many more, for families who are in need or really anyone of the community. The children had a blast of a time it was like Christmas for them all.Being that ...

Over the past couple weeks our Tamariki in Te Whanau Awhina have been very busy constructing thier imagination and masterpiece.  Building with blocks provides one of the most valuable learning experiences available for our young children. Block play stimulates learning in all domains of development, intellectual, physical, and social-emot...

Today was an awesome day as we the whanau from Kids Count Tawa celebrated National eat outside day, with our mums and Teachers from the school.The experience was amazing as we turned our afternoon tea time into an afternoon picnic time.As always there was a delicious spread of yummy goodies prepared by both the Teachers and the mums to share.Oh! Wh...

Kids Count Tawa Justin Toru Here in Kids Count Tawa we celebrated National New Zealand Sea week.The theme for the week was "Toiora te Moana, Toiora te Tangata" which basically stands for "Healthy Sea, Healthy people".During this week, our Tamariki/Children got involved in activities and songs around Tangaroa me ana Tamariki/ Tangaroa and his childr...

Kids Count Tawa The Teachers of Te Whānau Āwhina have a goal, and this goal is to support and guide our older children to become competent and confident in using the toilet. We started the last term with only two children using the toilet, we are now pleased to say with support and parent partnership we now have majority of our children using the t...

In the Rising stars room we have noticed the Tamariki are developing spatial awareness. Spatial Awareness is the distance between you and the objects in your environment. Spatial awareness is usually defined to include a person, so that for a child to have spatial awareness, that child will understand their location and the location of objects in r...

FFS 's would like to thank all the daddy's who took time to come and join us for the father's day celebration. This month in our room we are working on little architects where children are showing off their talents/abilities in making hanging mobiles and are decorating the whole classroom with their beautiful art. Since it's spring we are focusing ...

Father's Day this year was not only to celebrate for our fathers of our whanau but also the positive male influences that our Tamariki have in their lives.  OUR SUPERHEROES!!!! Our day started off setting up gazebo's, tables, flat pack garden boxes, basketball hoop and kai for the celebration of our father's day up by the pool area.Things were...

  Here in Future Ferns Junior's we have been thinking of ideas of how to display our birthday wall.We wanted to use natural resources and show our Tamariki that you can make things out of different materials around the house.We were very fortunate to have connections with past families in which have come through our centre with their chil...

Making friends. Showing anger in a healthy way. Figuring out conflicts peacefully. Taking care of someone who has been hurt. Waiting patiently. Following rules. Enjoying the company of others. All of these qualities, and more, describe healthy social-emotional development. Like any skill, young children develop these abilities in small steps over t...