Evolve's gun safety kit, which will be available online at gunsafeforkids.com, includes:
• Shooting targets for children to cut out, colour in and shoot at.
• Colourful drawings of guns for children to cut out and play with.
• Toy gun licences with space for a child's name and signature.
• A cartoon book on gun safety rules in child-friendly language.
All the materials include three rules:
• "We never point toy guns at people, pets or ourselves''.
• "We only point toy guns at targets''.
• "Only grown-ups can open the gun safe''.
Ms Amaral, who immigrated in 2016 from South Africa where she ran an entertainment business before moving into education, said Evolve was asked to develop the kit by its Little Wonders child care centres in South Canterbury and Otago.
"In those communities in particular there is quite a lot of deer hunting and duck hunting,'' she said.
"And secondly, a lot of young children do make-believe gun play all the time.''
She said the online kit was actually developed by the local branch of the New York-based public relations firm Y&R, formerly Young & Rubicam, and Evolve did not pay for it.
"Y&R have developed the materials. They have worked alongside, as we have, some pretty prestigious and influential figures such as Nathan Wallis and Nigel Latta,'' she said.
Wallis, a former early childhood lecturer at Canterbury University who now runs his own company X-Factor Education, said he was not paid to endorse the kit but he thought it was "a great idea''.
"I know someone personally who shot their brother as a child and killed him,'' he said.
Latta was not available to comment but Evolve said he described the kit as "a great initiative which will teach kids important safety tips and good behaviours in a really fun way''.
Dr Annette Henderson, an Auckland University psychologist specialising in preschoolers who was asked to review the kit, said the approach was age-appropriate.
