Coastlands Cafe - Coming VERY soon!

We are excited to announce that Coastlands’ very first cafe will be opening in August.

Managed by Stacey Levien, who many of you may know from The Shot Box, and catered by Cheryl Prince, the cafe is sure to be a great place to get your coffee and grab a bite to each. And with a playground just a minute walk away, you’ll be able to grab your items to take away then sit and watch the kids play.

The cafe will be cashless to make transactions quicker. Prepaid coffee cards will be available along with a delicious range of food.

We can’t wait!

We're on the home stretch!

Our soon to be completed Tui Room, for infants and toddlers, is coming together nicely.

The great team from Playscape have finished our outdoor learning space and what an amazing job they have done!! I can't wait for my toddler to be able to explore what it has to offer.

The joiners have installed the cabinetry in our kitchens, change rooms, staff room and reception area and today will finish off the last couple of things they have to do.

Our walls and ceilings are painted and we just have our sound absorbing autex, and the wallpaper in our sleep sanctuaries, to go on the walls now.

Next week the flooring will go down and then it will just be the finishing touches to go.

If you would like to come check out our Tui Room for infants and toddlers before enrolling your child, we will be open on the week beginning the 13th January and we will love to meet you and your little one and show you around.

Introducing Jordan

You may have noticed a new face in our Kiwi Room. Jordan is currently on a month long practicum with us and is enjoying getting to know your children.

Kia ora, my name is Jordan and I have been a teacher working at Little Orchard Preschool in Whakatane for almost three years now. I am halfway through my last year of study to become a qualified early childhood teacher.

For the next four weeks I will be doing my field practice placement in the Kiwi Room at Coastlands Preschool from the 29th of October to the 22nd of November. I look forward to working alongside your children and letting them help me to better myself as a teacher.

A bit about me:

• I have lived in New Zealand all my life and was born here in Whakatāne.

• My birthday is on the 24th of February

• I live in Whakatāne with my partner, Devon, and we spend our time renovating our new house.

• My favorite people are my mum and my sister, who I used to live with before moving to my new house with Devon

• We have two cats called Myrtle and Nala and a French bulldog puppy called Maisie

• Our new French bulldog puppy Maisie before moving to my new house with my partner

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...

Don't you love how, just when we are feeling all smug about the fact that the gloomy days of winter are behind us, mother nature throws us a curveball and gives us a day like today!

A perfect day to be tucked up inside with the fire roaring, making decisions about the colours that we are going to use in our Infant and Toddler Room.

It's a bit of a daunting task - using palm sized samples to decide on colours that will adorn our walls, floors and ceilings for years to come! Talk about pressure!

We are creating a 'home away from home' environment for the tamariki entrusted in our care. That means lovely soft carpet that doesn't hurt when crawled on. And colours that don't over stimulate the senses of the smallest members of our Coastlands Family.

As well as paint on the walls, we are also having Autex (another colour to select!). Autex is a sound absorber which will soften the noises in the room that our tamariki and staff are exposed to.

I think I am nearly done with the colours for the majority of the centre. Now I just need to take a trip into Resene and choose the wallpaper that will be used to create our sleep sanctuaries.

Respectful Practices

What a beautiful day we are having today in the Bay. Hopefully you are out in the sun enjoying some rays.

We are spending the day with Helen Armstrong, furthering our knowledge of the ideas of Care as Curriculum, Primary Caregiving and Unfolding Naturally. All big words, but these are the concepts that will build the foundation of our practice in our Infant and Toddler (and Kiwi and Pukeko) Room.

Employing principles such as these ensures that we are providing the best possible care and education to the children in our care.

We are lucky that this is the second time we have had both our current, and new, teachers undertake professional development together. This enables us to get to know each other and develop relationships. It also ensures that we are all on the same wavelength, no matter which area of our centre they are working in.

Op Shop Treasures

I've always loved op shops. You never know what delights you will find in them. After all, one man's trash is another man's treasure. So I'm relishing in the fact that I get to frequent op shops on a regular basis looking for resources for our Infant and Toddler room (and possibly for our existing rooms).

My favourite op shop for this purpose is one close to home (I dare not give its location for fear that everyone else will realise what a treasure trove it is), but I've sourced resourced from as far afield as Wellsford and even Maungaturoto over the last couple of months.

I think my favourite items thus far are the green dish and the golden goblet. I wonder what the tamariki will use them for?

Op shopping is a great way to look after our planet (and your pocket) too - rather than buying new and creating more waste (especially if you are buying plastic items which will end in a landfill) why not reuse items that are already in circulation?

Some of you may be wondering why on earth I have breakable items in my collection. Here at Coastlands Preschool, we view all children as competent and confident learners. We trust them to use real 'tools' in their play. Sure some items may get broken, but through our culture of respect, they learn to look after their tools and treat them carefully.

Testing out the Goods

As space at our current centre does not allow for the storage of all the exciting resources I am buying for our Infant and Toddler Room, I'm having to store them at home. Which means some of them are getting tested out by my boys.

It would appear that both of them (and the doll) approved of the cocoon seats that arrived yesterday.

We believe it is important to allow babies to unfold naturally, in their own time and pace. This encourages babies and children to learn their own capabilities and allows them to move in ways that are enjoyable to them.

With this in mind, the resources and equipment we have in our Infant and Toddler room will allow children to do just that - move and explore at their own pace. You won't find us lifting the tamariki on to swings and pushing them. Instead, our 'swings' will be low hung (just like in the picture) and the children can climb on, or in, themselves. This allows them to be in control of their movement and play and learn their own boundaries.

Cute Bums at Coastlands

It's quite possible the tamariki in our Infant and Toddler room will have the cutest bums around!

Did you know that, even with the washing involved, cloth nappies are 40% better for the environment than disposables?

Or how about the fact that if every baby had just one cloth nappy change per day, this would prevent one million disposables from going to landfill every week in New Zealand!

We are always looking for ways to look after our children's planet and using cloth nappies on the tamariki in our Infant and Toddler room while they are in our care is a great way we can reduce our impact on Papatūānuku. We are anticipating that we will save around 75kg of rubbish (based on the fact that an average disposable nappy weighs 200g) from entering our landfill each week.

We are grateful that the Whakatane Disctrict Council have generously given us 35 Baby Tree cloth nappies to get us started. Baby Tree is a local, Whakatane based, cloth nappy company - check them out if you are interested in giving cloth nappies a go.

Cafe at Coastlands Preschool

The section of our new building closest to Fishermans Drive is going to be a cafe. We are looking for expressions of interest from someone who may be wanting to lease the cafe.

Due to its size, it is likely best suited to someone who either wishes to have a small range of food on offer (and of course, an amazing range of coffee and hot drinks) or someone who is able to do the majority of the food preparation off site.

As well as providing indoor seating, the cafe is designed to make the most of the lovely sun with space for covered and uncovered outdoor seating.

If you know anyone who may be interested, please let them know. We would love to get Coastland's only cafe up and running as soon as possible once the building is complete.

Expressions of interest, or requests for more information, can be sent to admin@coastlandspreschool.co.nz

Infant and Toddler Room Progress

𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥...

This week the scaffolding came down and our windows went in. And boy are there a lot of them!

It is exciting to see our vision finally taking shape (and looking like a useable building).

We are currently finalising the amazing teaching team who will be caring for our smallest tamariki. We look forward to introducing them to you in the near future.

𝘞𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘸 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘐𝘯𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘰𝘥𝘥𝘭𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮. 𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘸𝘰. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘦𝘯𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥, 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘰 𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘳𝘦.