At BestStart Richmond Kindy we first completed our Let’s Move Block in November 2017.  Two years later in November 2019 we reassessed our practices to see how we were going to renew the Block. This aligned well with the Gold Healthy Heart Award we were completing with the Heart Foundation.

Our manager Fran says; “A key focus of this Block is on supporting kaiako to increase their skills and reflecting on opportunities they provide for tamariki.” 

Two kaiako attended training with TimberNook which provided them with skills to support nature-based play for children to encourage creativity, independence and imagination outdoors. Our Kindy has a goal to support all tamariki to ride a pedal bike before they start school so we also decided to seek support on how to teach tamariki to ride a bike from ‘Bike Taupo’ to achieve this goal.

Our Kindy aims to provide at least 30 minutes of planned active movement every day. A particular focus is on providing outdoor learning experiences, such as walking, biking and bush kindy outings. Our kaiako also reflected on how we use the available heavy outdoor resources to develop strength and proprioceptive skills through lifting, pushing and pulling. Providing opportunities to engage with whānau was also deemed to be important. We hosted a parents’ evening with a health and wellness focus. One of the ideas we focused on was on how whānau and teachers can support active movement.

All these initiatives and activities helped us to embed good practice into the physical activity aspect of our kindy learning and culture.  Our journey confirmed to us that investing time and resources into supporting active movement is very important. Teaching whānau and kaiako the importance of engaging in regular physical activity and providing them with the skills to do so, allows them to understand that being physically active can be an easy and fun way of life.