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.