News and Updates

Whānau Day What a wonderful time we had this month celebrating our lovely kindergarten community with our special Whānau Day! The sun was shining, the kitchen was busy with food preparation for morning tea, the veranda was decorated with balloons and the tables set with red tablecloths and covered in tiny star sprinkles! Everyone was so excited as families arrived and children showed parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles around all the different activities. Our guests were welcomed and then our leaders stood in front of the group and lead the karakia for kai time. Everyone enjoyed the special morning tea

AUTUMN SPECIAL FOR NEW ENROLMENTS - Enrol between now and the end of May 2025 and receive HALF PRICE FEES for the first 6 months! It was Wheels Day at Sunbeams last week! We learnt about bike safety including how to wear your helmet correctly. Our tamariki had so much fun zooming around our carpark which was specially set up as a bike circuit. One way traffic only and a petrol station for pit stops. The children have been very involved in leading our inquiry on Maps, with a focus on geography, the local area and where we are on

Summer at Sunbeams is in full swing! We celebrated Chinese New Year - The Year of the Snake. We love to foster creativity and provided opportunities for the children to create snakes using lots of paints and lashings of glitter! We also practised Chinese writing and painted brightly coloured dragon heads. We have been learning about the Treaty of Waitangi and ways in which we can honour the treaty here. We have a Sunbeams Treaty which we have created with our children. This helps to create a sense of belonging and guardianship within our place. We are very excited about

Kia ora! We returned on 13th January from our Christmas break, refreshed and ready for a busy summer with our tamariki! We have welcomed several new children who are settling in and making friends which is so lovely to see. It never ceases to amaze me how creative our tamariki are. We have set up numerous opportunities for construction with our collection of loose parts - planks, reels, large blocks and cloth. This gives children opportunities to create, construct, work cohesively in a team, communicate and problem solve. As the sun has been shining we have enjoyed lots of sand

Christmas Party 2024 At Christmas time I always take a moment to reflect on the year that has been. I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to be a part of such a lovely community of tamariki and whanau. Making connections with people and building these relationships is at the heart of our kindergarten. Celebrating Christmas with our families is one of the highlights of the year for us and gives us a chance to build on these connections. At our annual Christmas party we sang Christmas songs, had a fantastic feast for morning tea and presented our parents

HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY SUNBEAMS Anticipation was building as the morning of our Sunbeams Birthday approached. The kindergarten was decorated with balloons and a huge banner and the great morning tea feast was prepared. Let the fun begin….. How wonderful it was to celebrate this very special milestone with our tamariki and their families. Sunbeams Kindergarten has been open for ten years and in that time we have welcomed so many families through our doors. It has been a pleasure being a part of this amazing journey and building a very special place of learning for our tamariki . Thank you

Spring has sprung and we are busily planting our sunflower seeds, as is our spring tradition! Each tamariki has their own sunflower seed that they plant and nurture. I wonder whose sunflower will be the tallest this year?! 🌻

Malo e lelei! It’s Tongan Language Week and we have been busy learning about Tonga and its many islands. We’ve also made kiekie, (a Tongan dress) out of feathers, made and tasted some delicious ‘Otai (a tropical fruit and coconut drink) and did some Tongan flag craft. Toto’atu!

Today it snowed at Sunbeams! We had a snow fight, we stomped in the snow and made snowballs, we mixed the snow with dye to see what happened and we even tried tasting the snow!! The tamariki spent all day exploring the snow and using it in different ways as it changed properties into water and slush. We had cold fingers and toes but that’s what going to the snow is all about!

Interest in the Olympics has been high these last two weeks. Tamariki have been telling us what they have been watching on their TVs and we’ve investigated medal making, the Olympic rings and done a little gymnastics ourselves!

Kia orana - it’s Cook Islands Language Week and we have been busy creating ‘ei or lei with paper flowers, a little bread making and sharing of Kai and figuring out how to open some coconuts!

PYJAMA DAY!!!!
A chance to roll out of bed and come to kindy in your pyjamas. And the tamariki loved it! We had a pyjama runway, pancakes, hot chocolate and marshmallows and some cosy indoor fun on this cold and rainy day!

A rainy day means some creative inside play!

Bernie from Give a Kid a Blanket popped by to collect our donations today. Thanks to all whanau who kindly donated to this great cause. We’re doing our bit to help our community!

Thanks whanau for a fabulous Matariki evening at Sunbeams! Delicious food, dancing and waiata, marshmallows in the fire pit and so many smiling faces! Manawatia a Matariki!

A trip to the park is always a good idea! Our older tamariki love the physical challenge of a different playground and so good to get out in the local community! Thanks to Aimee (Hugo’s Mum) for coming along as parent help!

Matariki soup!

Tie dye socks! Jordie got the tamariki to work dyeing some socks 🧦 in multi colours! They came out great! Lots of messy fun making them and ongoing fun wearing them!

It’s BOX DAY today! The kindergarten is filled with all kinds and sizes of boxes and the tamariki are busy making forts, towers, boats, houses, artworks, climbing frames, helmets, swords, and so much more! Boxes give amazing opportunities for creative, open ended play and their imaginations are running wild! Thanks to everyone who brought in their boxes!