Finlay Chamberlain-Brown, 3, in the new family play area at Te Puke Playcentre.
Finlay Chamberlain-Brown, 3, in the new family play area at Te Puke Playcentre.
A tired looking corner of Te Puke Playcentre has been consigned to history.
The Playcentre's family play area has undergone a transformation into a home and shop thanks to sponsorship from two local businesses.
Te Puke New World's donation was used to buy new wooden resources while The Toy Box donated a new quality wooden Hape play kitchen for free and also heavily discounted wooden play fridge and a supermarket shop.
The play area has been transformed with the new supermarket fully stocked with wooden food items, a market stall which can be transformed into a coffee shop or icecream parlour, new play kitchen, new dining table and chairs and a dress-up rack with new costumes.
"We have turned the supermarket shop into a mini New World in honour of Te Puke New World's support," says grants office Debra Chamberlain-Brown.
Debra says the area now allows children to role-play.
The family play area at Te Puke Playcentre before it was refurbished.
"They can pretend to cook in the kitchen, eat at the dining table, put on some washing, have bedtime, dress up in costumes, play with dolls, and go shopping in a mini supermarket."
She says role-playing is an important development milestone for preschoolers as it develops language skills, social skills, cultural skills, awareness, creativity, imagination and lets them make sense of the world around them.
"Our tamariki have absolutely loved the upgrade. Every session, the kids have been right into it, shopping in the mini New World dressed as an astronaut, cooking up a storm in the play kitchen wearing princess outfits and serving up ice creams from the market stall dressed as Spiderman.
"It has promoted interaction between the tamariki helping them make friendships and using their imaginations. It's been truly fantastic."
Without the sponsors' support, Debra says the upgrade would not have happened.
"We honestly can not thank Te Puke New World and The Toy Box enough."
The Te Puke Playcentre is in Stock Rd. It is a non-profit, parent-led early childhood education centre which aims to offer high quality education for children in small, mixed age groups from 0 to 6 years old.
It is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 8.45am to 12.15pm for community members who want to take their children along and stay and support them through meaningful play experiences.
The Playcentre also has SPACE programme sessions running on Mondays and Fridays to support new parents.
The Te Puke Playcentre will have been a part of the community for 50 years next year.
It is completely run by local community members - parents, grandparents and whānau.
''While we are minimally funded through the Ministry of Education as a recognised provider of early childhood education, this funding does not meet all our needs. To achieve any projects we are really reliant upon grants, sponsorship and donations,'' says Debra.
