At Central Kids Kindy in Opotiki, we first joined Building Blocks in May 2018, and focused on two Blocks per term. One of our kaiako, took on the role of leading us on our Building Blocks journey.

For our Smile Block, we created an interactive activity for tamariki to explore oral health by making their own toothpaste. We supported tamariki to make toothpaste using coconut oil, baking soda and peppermint essence. The activity turned into an experiment to work out how much of each ingredient was needed for a good toothpaste. It became so popular that tamariki were requesting it everyday. Our kaiako could see that it engaged all the senses, encouraged exploration, experimentation and trial and error as they were unsure of the results until they tried it. It took a while to get the right balance, with lots of tasting, smelling, feeling of texture, checking consistency and remembering ratios that had worked before. Our tamariki were enabled to realise their potential by developing their interests and strengths to become life-long learners.

Our kindy also arranged a visit to the dental van at a local Primary school where the tamariki had a chance to see what it was like to go for a dental checkup. The dental nurse also identified a few tamariki that would benefit from some dental treatment and this enabled referrals to be sent home to whānau to follow-up.

We really enjoyed being able to create fun and engaging activities for tamariki to explore and take ownership of their wellbeing. We could see how easy it was to embed health and wellbeing topics into the curriculum with tamariki.