Little Coasties
by Busy Bees

Dietitian Designed Menus

With the inviting smell of home cooked meals and baking, you won’t have to search very far to find our fabulous and passionate childcare centre cook who freshly prepares all meals in the heart of our centre.

Across morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea, our Nourish menu provides foods that are minimally processed, avoiding recipes that are high in added sugar, instead using fresh, real and wholesome ingredients. Children are provided with well-balanced meals from the four main food groups (breads and cereals, milk and milk products, fruit and vegetables, lean meat and meat alternatives).

Teachers also do regular baking with the children, which provides them opportunities to engage and learn a range of food preparations skills and fine motor movements such as pouring, sifting, spooning. It is a great hands on sensory experience for children to develop independence through self-help skills, practice simple maths as they measure and count quantities. 

Promoting Sustainability

We have partnered with City to Farm in their Zero Waste Zero Carbon in Schools Program to divert food scraps from landfills, instead providing local farms with compost for their banana palm plantations.

At Little Coasties, we use a bokashi compost system where we place our food scraps in a bucket, and the children take turns sprinkling bokashi over them. The bokashi inoculant ferments the food scraps, pickling them to minimize odors and speed up their breakdown into topsoil. Bins are collected weekly and transported to a local Hibiscus Coast farm for use.

Our spaces

Children are reflective thinkers and explorers. It enables them to be confident decision-makers. By selecting their learning and play-based experiences, your child’s capabilities grow. Parents love the rich sense of community found in our little slice of paradise. The curriculum at Little Coasties reflects our philosophy for strong relationships. It values input from parents, teachers, whānau, children, and our wonderful community.

Our Babies room kaiako believe in supporting and empowering unique individuals, laying foundations for capable and confident learners, working as co-researchers, providing a safe environment, promoting well-being and belonging, and following a primary care system for secure attachments and meeting needs within the Little Coasties community.

In our Toddler space our kaiako,  strive to create a fun, safe, and nurturing learning environment where tamariki can make choices, take risks, engage in various play activities, and develop independence and self-help skills. Our focus is on fostering each child's well-being and supporting their individual interests in a supportive and encouraging setting. 

For our preschoolers, we provide an environment where respectful and reciprocal relationships are the foundation of our Preschool community. We work alongside and collaborate with whānau to strengthen our connections, and celebrate children’s achievements and uniqueness. Learning opportunities through play, support children’s holistic development and readiness for school.

School readiness programme

Our School Readiness Programme provides a calm, engaging start to the day, where children are supported to ease into their morning in a familiar and nurturing environment. We recognise this time as an important opportunity to foster a strong sense of belonging and wellbeing, aligning with the principles and strands of Te Whāriki, particularly Mana Atua (Wellbeing) and Mana Whenua (Belonging).

Guided by the Bee Curious curriculum, our programme is designed to spark children’s natural curiosity and support them as capable, confident learners. Through a project-based approach, children embark on meaningful educational learning journeys that evolve from their interests, questions, and ideas. These experiences encourage them to explore, investigate, and problem-solve in ways that are both intentional and responsive.

A key part of our programme is our intentional focus on early literacy. Through our reading and writing experiences, children are supported to develop a love of books, storytelling, and communication. This may include shared reading, storytelling, mark-making, journaling, and opportunities to explore letters, sounds, and symbols in meaningful contexts. These experiences align with Te Whāriki’s Mana Reo (Communication), supporting children to build confidence as emerging readers and writers while expressing their ideas, thoughts, and creativity.

We place a strong emphasis on developing key learning dispositions such as curiosity, creativity, perseverance, collaboration, and independence. Whether children are engaged in quiet creative activities, collaborative projects, or exploring ideas that extend from previous learning, they are supported to take ownership of their learning and build confidence in their abilities.