Our Rooms

Active Explorers Mana has four separate rooms, enabling us to deliver age-appropriate experiences for tamariki at each different stage of their development.

Ngaio

This room caters for our youngest explorers, from birth through to 15 months.

Taupata

Specially designed for our tamariki aged around 15 months to 2 years, as they begin active exploration of themselves and their space.

Manuka

This space is our home away from home for our 2 to 3 ½ year old. It’s all about social interaction through a sense of belonging and active exploration of people, places and things around them.

Kanuka

Kanuka caters for our oldest, most active explorers aged 3 ½ to 5 years, where kaiako and tamariki collaborate to create a space where tamariki become more competent and confident for the next step in their learning and development.

In our Ngaio and Taupata rooms we place a strong focus on free and natural movement. We believe that children should not be put in positions that they are unable to get into or out of themselves, so we do not use high chairs.  We also believe children will develop at their own pace. We provide open ended resources which allow children to explore with infinite possibilities. Children need to learn to experience possibilities for themselves.

Programmes in our Manuka and Kanuka rooms place strong emphasis on the development of responsive, respectful, working partnerships between tamariki, kaiako, parents/whanau and members of the wider community.  Opportunities are created for children to investigate and explore, with plenty of stimulating resources and experiences that support and extend learning. Through communication, exploration and creative expression children share their learning and development, which is documented and celebrated on wall displays, slide shows, video footage and in children’s profiles.