News and Updates

Whānau Day at Sunbeams was a family filled affair with food, play and songs. Thanks everyone for coming along - what a turn out! So pleased we can share our special place with so many friends and family!

Lots of Easter fun this week at Sunbeams! We had a visit from the Easter bunny, we painted rock Easter eggs and made Easter chicks with Sloane’s Mum,Steph. We hope all our whanau have had a lovely Easter break 🐣

Paint throwing fun today at Sunbeams! The tamariki soaked cotton balls in paint and threw them at paper attached to the fence! Great for trajectory schemas and throwing urges! And a beautiful combined art piece was created!

It was Tell a Fairytale day today at Sunbeams! Whānau came to kindy with their favourite story book and parents read to the tamariki! We also dressed up and had a new fairy garden to play with. Thanks to everyone who came! The children loved it!

Tadpoles! We are so excited to have our own tadpoles at Sunbeams! We plan to watch them grow into frogs and we’re learning how to feed them and care for them. Come and check them out!

It’s Chinese New Year and we were lucky to have our teacher Peipei and Andrew’s Mum Libby help us to celebrate! After decorating the kindergarten in red and gold we enjoyed activities like making dragon heads, painting with special calligraphy brushes and baking a special New Year rice cake to bring good luck for this year! It’s the year of the dragon! Happy New Year!

Toitu te tiriti! We celebrated Waitangi Day with our tamariki by discussing what the treaty is all about and how that relates to our own Sunbeams Treaty. We brainstormed how we can work together and share our things and the tamariki signed our new treaty with their fingerprints!

“We’re going to the zoo, zoo, zoo!” Well, the zoo came to us today at Sunbeams! The animals prowled around their enclosure and drank at the waterhole. The tamariki have been making up stories and getting the animals to explore and climb the big banyan tree. Lots of imaginative, creative, wonder-full play today!

We had a fabulous Christmas party with all our gorgeous whanau! Lots of food and songs and fun! We wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy holiday!

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas at Sunbeams! We’ve got the tree up and decorated and we’ve been making lots of special gifts for our whanau. The Christmas party is tomorrow so looking forward to some Christmas songs and yummy food!

We’re celebrating Diwali this week at Sunbeams! We had so much fun using henna to make mehndi on our hands and making clay diva to hold candles for this festival of light! We have also been talking about what Diwali means to the Indian culture while the children have been exploring Diwali-inspired art provocations! Happy Diwali everyone!

First harvest of the year. Some delicious radishes! Well done tamariki!

It’s Sunbeams’ 9th Birthday today and we celebrated with our community with a party and some delicious kai. Thanks everyone for coming and marking the occasion with us!
Ra whanau ki a tatou!

BULA! It was Fijian language week this week - and as well as learning some new Fijian phrases we also made some delicious coconut bread with the tamariki. Recipe below!

It was Election Day at Sunbeams today! We voted for which value (Responsibility, Kindness or Bravery) was most important. The tamariki were very excited for their voices to be heard! At the end of the day we counted the votes and the result was that Responsibility was the most important value. Democracy at work here at Sunbeams!

Spring has sprung at Sunbeams and we are full of the joys of it! So nice to have the sun shining (in between the rain 😅) and have lots of outside fun! The strawberries we’re growing are looking good - the tamariki are waiting patiently for them to turn red so we can eat them!

It is Chinese Language Week this week - AND the Chinese holiday of Middle Autumn! This is the time of year where traditionally Moon Cakes are made. Our lovely teacher Peipei talked to the tamariki about the festival and then, with the help of Andrew’s Mum Libby, made moon cakes with them! So beautiful! And tasty too!

It’s Te Wiki o te reo Māori! Thanks to Lila’s Mum,Alice and Aunty Grace for coming and teaching us a poi waiata this morning! Kia ora!

On the first day of Spring we started our planting - herbs, strawberries, sunflowers and some vegetables. The tamariki are also sprouting some broad beans by hanging them in damp pockets in the window! So much concentration and interest! And wait til we get to eat some of it!!