Kia ora ano e te whanau,

It is wonderful to see that you are viewing your tamaiti blog and leaving a comment. We will enjoy reading these to the tamariki during mat time. The art area was the last project that needed to be set up and now it is finally complete. Here are a few photos for you to enjoy and maybe comment about. The art area has been purposely set up this way to create discussion from the tamariki. I wonder if you can see anything about this area that gets you thinking? If you have, please feel free to leave a comment.

Remember, we have the whanau day this Sunday, so we kaiako will be looking forward in seeing the entire whanau. Nau mai haere mai!

Staff of Matariki.

Kia ora Whanau...

Here are a few photos of our family play/vanity area on the deck on the tuakana side. If you look, you will notice, all of the items are of different colours in this area. Inside, the defined areas are of one main colour. The reason for this is children will understand where things belong and how they are to be put back after they have been used. It also allows the child's focus to be drawn to new items of interest, without too much visual distraction such as a vase of flowers or a bowl of fruit. Sometimes, when the tables or chairs or items are presented in an array of bright colours, items that you want to focus on become less visible and add to visual confusion rather than standing out as items of interest.

Unfortunately, we had spent most of our putea on the inside so we had to work with what we already had. Hence the reason the play area is multi coloured. In saying this though, I think it works for now, as the children proved this by being so engaged in this area for long periods of time.

Remember, whanau day this Sunday. We really wish for you all to attend this whanau day as it has been set up for the interest of your child. In order for us facilitators to know your child, we have to know you, the parent, guardian, koro, kui, or siblings. Kia ora, Staff of Matariki.

Kia ora taatou,

Just want to let you all know that our eating area is almost complete with the beautiful lino that was donated by Mike Price FLOORING here in Whakatane. Mike gave us a huge piece of lino that we were able to share between the Tuakana side and the Teina side. On behalf of the staff, parents, and our tamariki, we would like to thank you for this wonderful koha (donation) to our centre, Matariki Early Childhood Centre.

Oh... and whanau, if you ever need your flooring done or someone in the whanau does, give Mike and email: mike.price.flooring@xtra.co.nz I'm sure he will be more then willing to help you out.

Followed are a few tamariki using the area and also a few shots with the lino laid out.

Ngaa mihi kia taatou katoa!

Shades going up!

Wow, a beautiful hot day again. We must say, the teina have been really enjoying their days out under the new shades with this hot weather. Yes, that's right, our shades are finally here. The tuakana side goes up sometime this week so we are looking forward to these going up also.

Here's some more photos for your enjoyment of the tamariki at Matariki as well as the new shades.

Kia ora whanau,

Had another great day. Had a few more of our tamariki return today and it didn't take them long to get use to the new environment. Still a bit new for a few teina however I'm sure with time, they will become more and more familiar with the new change.

Here are a few photos of the tamariki engaged in the new areas set out. Take care whanau, and expect a panui coming your way to explain how to leave a comment on the blog if you don't know already.

The staff of Matariki.

Here are a few more areas that have been completed. The wahi pukapuka and the rauemi area. Kia ora!

Kia ora whanau,

The team here at Matariki have been really busy, even working during the weekend, now that's dedication lol. The centre is looking absolutely wonderful. Hats off to all the staff that contributed, whether through discussions, assisting with shopping and hands on. A huge thanks to Penny who gave the teams funds to achieve what we wanted to do for our tamariki and that is to set up an environment that will "support childrens need for a range of experiences including; self initiated quiet times. enjoyment of a sense of order, a feeling of belonging, participation in collaborative activity and the chance to make a mess" (Ann Pairmen and Lisa Terreni) and I believe we all achieved this. To our wonderful manager Ata, who gave us free range with when it came to stuff that we needed, Ka mau te wehi. Just a few more projects to finish off and the inside areas will be complete. Once these are done, we will be looking at setting up the outside areas. We may even call upon the whanau who have experience in this field. So here are the completed areas so far from the taina side and the pakeke side. Nga mihi ki a tatou katoa.

Tena Koutou e te Whanau,

We are hoping that you all had a fabulous Xmas and an awesome New Year. This week the staff have returned to work, getting straight back into planning and setting up of our centre before your tamaiti returns. This term I'm sure, is going to be exciting one and we are sure the children are going to be very surprised at the new look of the centre. Mum, Dad, we are also sure you will be too. The staff are going all out painting, sanding, cleaning, and preparing the centre with amazing results. Without hopefully giving away to much here are a couple of photos of some of the areas that have been sent up so far. Nga mihi nui, staff of Matariki. See you all on Monday tamariki ma.

This is our restaurant/activity area. The majority of our children will be returning this year with us, and a great interest they showed last year, was serving, sharing and pouring each other cups of teas etc. The main goal for staff was to create each of our areas aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I remembered during my studies, Ann Pairman (Early Childhood Development), stated; "Children are more likely to grow up with an eye for beauty if the adults around them demonstrate that they value aesthetics". So, being a new year, we decided to give it a go, and with fantastic results.

We wanted to take advantage of this view from the window, and even last year the tamariki loved congregating around trying to peek out. Here, the tamariki will be able to step up on the slabs to get an awesome view. Not only this, but this area is also a great tactile area. The slabs were donated by Whaea Muffy, thank you so much Muffy. I'll put up more photos once we have completed our other areas. See you all, this Monday whanau.

Arohanui, Staff of Matariki.