MInibeasts

If you’ve noticed your children peering under rocks, staring into grass patches, or excitedly bringing those bugs in the garden lately, you’re seeing our current Inquiry unit in action!  We are always so fascinated with our children's enthusiasm and care for animals and creatures.  This is the making of great tangata tiaki !  

This term, we are diving into the world of minibeasts. Through hands-on experiences and observation and play, we are taking steps into scientific thinking and practical skills.  We are learning how to observe carefully, ask questions, and make sense of the natural world around us.

Here is a look at what our children are exploring and how it connects to The New Zealand Curriculum:

Scientists observe closely, ask questions, and stay open to changing their minds when new clues appear. In our school grounds.  We want our children asking : How do we find answers to our questions about local minibeasts? 

We are supporting our children to think about What happens if two people notice different things about the same creature?  This is where our oral language comes in as children share debate and justify their thinking alongside learning the ‘facts’.  They learn that science involves exploring, testing ideas, and appreciating that there can be more than one explanation.

Through hands-on play and building simple models, children are discovering how minibeasts survive and how we can have an impact on this. They are looking at how different body parts help creatures move, hide, or find food right here at our place.  When we were at Zealandia we saw lots of wētā hotel and how these were actually inhabited by many creatures seeking peace and quiet !

We are super fortunate. Our place at Worser Bay is garden, bush and beach,  home to an incredible variety of tiny creatures! By looking closely at physical features, our children are learning how to group and sort them. They are unpacking big questions like: What actually makes an insect different from a spider or a snail?  What are the similarities and differences ?

How can we share what a minibeast looks like without taking it out of its home? Children are using drawings, large models as examples and new scientific vocabulary to describe creature bodies and habitats clearly to others.

We want our children to have a developing understanding of the vital roles minibeasts play in our place and gardens, children learn to be tangata tiaki. They are exploring why these tiny creatures matter to our ecosystem and taking small daily actions to keep their habitats safe and healthy.

How You Can Connect at Home ? 

You can help extend this learning at home by:

• Going on a mini-beast hunt: Look under leaves or log piles in your yard or local park and ask your child what physical features they notice.

• Drawing & labeling: Ask them to draw a bug they saw and talk about the scientific words they learned for its body parts.

• Practicing kaitiakitanga: Talk about small actions your family can take to protect tiny habitats around your home.   Send those photos and discoveries in for your child to share :-) 

Run, Jump, Throw

When you drop your child off at school and hear that we’re practising running, jumping, and throwing in Physical Education (PE), it might sound like basic playground play.  However, in Tautoru we are focusing on these fundamental movements because they are the building blocks for skill development and confidence for all things PE.  These skills all help in most sports and physical activities. 

This week, we launched into our PE and Health programme starting with a Run, Jump, Throw focus. This is in the name of skill building but also in preparation for our junior fun athletics.  Today, we started off with exploring different ways to run. We ran some relay races and played some games involving lots of running.

Before we started our PE lesson we set the scene by setting goals with Shannon, thinking about the character strengths that will help us work better as a team. We thought about how we would give new skills and games a go and how we could be confident but safe risk takers. For some of our kids taking a risk is being brave enough to race someone.

We think of fundamental movement skills as the "phonics" for physical activity. Before children can read or write sentences, they need to master most of their letters and sounds. In a PE context, our children can learn to play sports like futsal, basketball, netball, athletics or even swimming because they learn the three foundational building blocks to be successful:

1. Running : teaches spatial awareness, speed and pacing yourself, balance, and agility. Learning how to run efficiently and well sets our children up as healthy sports people who continue to develop their fitness and skills throughout their time at school whether it is participating in class PE, playground games or venturing out and playing in a sports team.  

2. Jumping:  requires stability and Power.  Jumping in different ways develops muscle strength and we make sure we teach safe landing.  Safe landing skills include teaching about soft knees and balanced feet.  These skills and techniques are essential for protecting our growing joints and preventing injury.  Jumping in sand at the beach is also a different type of landing but fun !

3. Throwing:  builds hand-eye coordination and upper-body strength.   Learning correct ways to throw objects lays the groundwork for every sport involving a ball or object.  

These skills all have amazing benefits for learning in the classroom as well.  Lots of physical activity and movement contributes to strong core muscles and gross motor skills. These all help with fine motor skill development that we need for writing - These specific handwriting skills are now referred to in the curriculum under Writing - Transcription. 

A few newsletters a go,  Jude talked about a Norwegian school system and their philosophy around sports.  This excerpt came off the back of The FIFA World Cup and always sticks with me when thinking about PE and Health and the opportunities we provide.  

"Norway has this ' joy first 'approach to youth sport and what is known as a patient and unconventional sporting system. Norway actively rejects early specialisation. In 2007 Norway's governing body for sport mandated strict rules to protect the safety and wellbeing of young athletes.  

• No competitive pressure for children under 9 years there are no official score lists, league tables or trophies. 
• Delayed Rankings- Regional competitions start at age 11 but match scores and official rankings are off limits. 
• Late Specialisation-Anything looking like a national championship or ' elite tracking' is 13 Yrs +. 

Interesting isn't it?  The Norwegian model encourages children to try a range of disciplines and not be typecast young- ok we may not have alpine skiing in our curriculum but it's interesting that the desire is to just have fun and give everything a go and focus on just being a kid without too much pressure."

For the full newsletter and Guardian link see 

Worser Bay School Newsletter - Term 3, Week 1, 24 July 2026

This is what we really want our children to experience - 'a full menu'.  We want to make sure that we are exposing our children to as many sporting opportunities as possible and helping them be successful by starting with the teaching of fundamental skills.   

No physical activity is lost.  Playing, visiting the park, kicking a ball around, scootering, family bike rides swimming lessons, water play and team sports. These are all great ways to notice and encourage your child's fundamental sports skills.