At Kids’ Domain we view ourselves as a community of learning and inquiry – where we wonder, discover and learn together. Our curriculum is grounded in Te Whāriki – the New Zealand early childhood education holistic curriculum based on socio-cultural theory.
The responsive curriculum skilfully integrates the arts, philosophy, maths, science, literacy, and technology. Children are encouraged to experiment and express themselves using a variety of creative languages.
Our early childhood centre has created a variety of places and spaces for children and teachers – and an inclusive culture where people feel loved, enriched, and have a place to be and become.
CURRICULUM, TEACHING & LEARNING
Teachers support and encourage children’s learning by noticing, recognising and responding to their strengths and interests. When areas of individual or group interest are identified we encourage children to develop their working theories through an inquiry approach based on questioning, investigation and collaborative exchange of ideas and thinking.
Through this exploration we integrate key learning areas into our early childhood curriculum such as literacy and numeracy in a contextual and meaningful way – a bit like hiding vegetables in ice-cream. We achieve providing an early childhood education in a way your pre-schooler will respond and learn.
The Auckland Domain is a large park with natural bush, playing fields, gardens and wonderful large trees to climb and play in. The Domain is just through our fence, so we spend as much time as possible in the Domain getting to know its places and people and taking time to go slower and unveil the hidden mysteries. We also provide a garden for the children to grow and harvest.
The intention is to foster children’s ecological identity by ‘being’ in nature and then re-visiting and re-viewing it through expressive languages. This creates a connection between us – back here at the Centre - and the Domain. The meaningful and joyous experiences we end up sharing have deepened our understanding of ourselves, each other and our beautiful natural surroundings.
MATERIALS
We create enriching environments offering a wide range of experiences and materials through which children develop their theories, make meaning of their world and the things in it and learn. Materials may be open ended, recycled, upcycled, natural objects and synthetic object. Teachers acknowledge the value of informal learning and uninterrupted play.
