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Our Environment
Welcome to House of Wonder Forest Lake Early Education Centre, where a world of love and learning awaits your child. Nestled at the top of the hill, overlooking the city of Hamilton, our newly renovated centre is a haven of creativity and growth.
Step into our warm and inviting spaces, filled with natural materials that complement our classroom environment. By providing authentic experiences for our tāmariki, we create comfortable and cosy spaces where they can truly thrive.
Our dedicated team of teachers are inspired by the tāmariki and their whānau, fostering a genuine love and care for everyone who walks through our doors. We understand the importance of nurturing relationships and building a strong sense of community.
Our physical spaces are carefully designed to provoke curiosity, creativity, and engagement. Our Kaiako act as facilitators, observing and documenting children's interests and ideas, and then using those observations to guide further learning experiences.
Open-ended materials play a crucial role in our environments, as they provide tamariki with endless possibilities for exploration, creativity, and problem-solving. Such as Natural objects, sparking imaginative play and inspiring questions about the environment, Loose parts like recycled materials for sorting, counting or imaginative play or art supplies where tamariki can express their ideas and emotions, and develop fine motor skills!
Our Rooms
Nursery 0-2years
We value the peace, calm and creativity that a beautiful environment brings, so we take great delight in beautifying the environment, and inviting children to play among beautiful things.
We believe that the most critical part of providing a rich learning environment for babies to thrive in is to have strong, secure relationships. That is why we adopt a team approach to Primary Caregiving in our nursery. Each child gets connected with a primary caregiver who holds the responsibility for the overall well-being of the child while they are in our care. As time goes by our babies will form strong relationships with all the adults in our small group of dedicated carers as they develop their sense of belonging in the world.
Toddlers 2-3years
We take a great amount of pride in providing a beautiful, peaceful, environment for your child that can truly become a home away from home. As our children become more independent, continuing to make sense of the world around them, strong relationships form the foundation of a healthy early learning environment.
Our under 3 space comes with a dedicated sensory and water studio. This is a ‘yes’ space where our youngest children are able to freely explore the joys of a variety of sensory experiences. We believe in empowering them to ask their own questions, construct their own theories and test these in the classroom. This results in a very rich, complex and joyful early learning experience.
The Kindergarten 3-6years
By adopting an inquiry based approach to early learning, our Kindergarten classroom becomes a fun and dynamic place, as our teachers are constantly listening, observing and collaborating with tamariki and their whānau to discover their current 'wonderings.'
We believe that children can learn, express and communicate in a wide variety of ways. This includes being exposed to, and learning to use, a wide variety of materials.
Our inhouse cook provides freshly made meals for children each day using our Nourish menus and recipes. We believe that through nourishing food, children are fueled to thrive physically and mentally, whilst enjoying the benefits of coming together and connecting as a group at mealtimes.
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.
At House of Wonder Forest Lake Early Education Centre in Te Rapa, Hamilton we are committed to follow the aspirations of the New Zealand National ECE Curiculum, Te Whāriki. Te Whāriki envisages kaiako in early learning settings working in partnership with parents, whānau and community to realise this vision. The expectation is that, in their early years, children will experience a curriculum that empowers them as lifelong learners, right from their early exploration of the world around them, through to preparation for school.
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