Pre-Kindergarten Room: Cherry Blossom 

Children are 2½ to 3½ years of age.

Cherry Blossom are two kindergarten rooms that are opened up to be one classroom to enable children to play and explore together.  
We aim to encourage and foster the development of empathy for others, friendship, kindness and taking responsibility.
We provide a spontaneous daily programme that meets the children's diverse needs as well as supports individual and group interests.  We offer messy play and art regularly throughout the week as well as play dough, sand and water play, blocks, cars and much more.  Children have the freedom and space to run, ride bikes, climb hills in our large park like outdoors environment.  
Playball@HawkesBay coaches facilitate planned sports and movement sessions for all our kindergarten groups each week at Cherry Grove.
Teachers strive to provide a positive learning environment to:

• Support children to understand, express and regulate their emotions
• Help children build resilience and a sense of self-worth
• Support relationships within where an older or more experience child plays with and supports a younger child (tuakana-teina relationships)
  
  

Kindergarten Room: Busy Bees

Children are from 3½ years to 4½ years of age. 

Opportunities for children to learn and wonder about the wider world are extended in Busy Bees, where greater importanc​e is placed on:

• Developing a sense of self
• Opportunities to communicate and negotiate are encouraged to develop resilience,
• Tamariki are supported to develop their own curiosity and interests and embrace on activities that require focus and commitment
• Develop an increasing ability to solve more complex problems through games, physical and social activities
• Enhancing capabilities for understanding of routines, rules, and social strategies are fostered through intentional play, regular routines, sharing, turn taking, and process learning.

Busy Bees continue to learn through play by doing, interacting with kaiako and peers, devising theories, and exploring them through trial and error to learn more about the world around them. As they engage, their attitudes emerge and the way they interpret new experiences unfolds further which will influence their learning through life. Our Busy Bees are ready to be critical thinkers, problem solvers, and explorers wherever their wonder may take them.

​​Kindergarten Room: Honey Bees

Children are 4½ years until they begin Primary School. 
​ As a ‘transition to school’ room, there is a greater importance placed on developing social competence and confidence through open-ended play experiences.  The room is specifically designed for older, more experienced explorers.  Honey Bees experience an environment where they are encouraged to:

• Share ideas with a major focus on developing oral language abilities with confidence to articulate their thoughts and feelings in a supportive and positive environment.
• Develop early numeracy skills and science concept knowledge with regular process activities and real life experiences, where our tamariki take responsibility for setting up and tidying up as part of the exercise.
• Develop early literacy and creative skills with ready access to a wide range of teacher initiatives, games, puzzles, books, and art resources to ignite and support extended learning.
• Sustain focus on projects where they can learn to make independent choices and further develop sound problem solving strategies.

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The Honey Bees kindergarten room is full of nurturing, fun, and laughter as our tamariki work together to develop a range of skills and attributes, which we know from our strong relationships with all our local schools, that prepare them for a successful transition to the Primary School environment.

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