Pebbles Montessori Sumner

Pebbles Preschool opened in April 2010 and operates in a beautifully renovated villa. We are licensed for 50 children aged 0 – 5 years and open daily from 8am - 5:30pm including school holidays.

​Our inside environment offers 3 separate rooms for the 3 different developmental ages and our outside environment has 3 separate play areas which can be opened up to offer children the opportunity of playing alongside different age groups and meeting up with siblings and friends.

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The Pukeko Room

​The Pukeko Room is a small nursery for children aged 3 months – up to 2 yrs and is licensed for a maximum of 8 children per day/session, with a teacher to child ratio of 1:4.

​Our qualified teachers recognize the value in building loving, secure attachments with each child to ensure they feel safe and happy. We work in partnership with each family to personalize your child’s care and routines and we keep a record of what your child has been doing each day to share with you.

The planning for the Pukeko Room stems from a combination of the children’s developmental stages, physical abilities and their own individual interests. The children’s interests are discovered by observation of the children and communication with parents/whānau.

​This information is then used to ensure that the environment and resources in the Pukeko Room are stimulating and challenge the children’s abilities and interests.

The daily programme includes music times, mat times, story times, messy play and outside exploration and free play times. These times allow the children and staff to explore specific curriculum areas and developmental stages, including, but not limited to:

Fine and gross motor skills

Rhythm and beat

Sensory exploration

Creative art skills

urn taking and sharing

Learning the daily routines and events

“Children learn through responsive and reciprocal relationships with people, places and things. Interaction provides a rich social worth of the world for children to make sense of and gives opportunities for them to learn by trying their ideas with adults and other children”

The Kea Room

​The Kea Room is our middle classroom for children aged from 15 months to around 3 years. Our teacher:child ratio is 1:6 and we can have up to 18 children with 3 teachers in The Kea Room.

Our planning comes from the children’s interests, which we find out through observations and conversations with children and their family/whānau. We use this information to provide an environment with resources that will stimulate and challenge the children to extend their interests and build on them. We provide an array of experiences that promote and encourage independence, socializing and interaction with friends and teachers.

Our programme for the day includes mat times, music times, messy play and group times as well as free play time. During these times we are able to spend time learning about specific areas of development such as:

Maths and science concepts

Colour recognition

Learning letters and numbers

Being involved in drama

Taking turns and sharing

Emergent literacy

Being creative through different art mediums

Listening skills and following instructions

Self help skills

Learning about rhythm and beat

In the Kea room we want the children to grow into confident and competent learners through all aspects of our planning.

The Tui Room

​The Tui Room is for children aged from 3yrs – up to 6 yrs with a preferred teacher to child ratio of 1:8. The children have access to a wide variety of resources and Montessori equipment and are encouraged to respect each others’ work space.

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The teachers in the Tui Room offer a transition to school group every morning and afternoon for the eight oldest children, and arrange regular visits to the local schools. The children are encouraged to practise skills identified by the new entrant teachers to encourage independence and social skills, such as cutting and turn taking.

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The Tui Room organizes ‘work time’ in the morning and afternoon after a whole group mat time. At group times the children explore literacy and numeracy skills and develop fundamental life skills with their key teachers. The children are encouraged to plan, ask questions, enhance social skills, think creatively and increase awareness of their world.

​‘Work times’ are planned for individual children as well as the small group and the aims include but are not limited to:

Developing fine motor skills to include correct pencil & scissor techniques

Developing gross motor skills including a regular PMP programme

Encouraging confident communication skills

Promoting friendship and social skills

Inspiring a love of learning and promoting problem solving skills

Introducing the building blocks for numeracy and literacy

Promoting self confidence and following interests and ideas

“Children experience an environment where they develop working theories for making sense of the natural, social, physical and material worlds” Te Whariki.

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