Glen Eden Kindergarten kaiako have been broadening our knowledge about the importance of journeying through our local community’s history. With help from whānau, we learned that the official opening of the new Glen Eden fire station building, just a few hundred metres away, was in 1953, 3 years before our present kindergarten building opened.

Rarely a day goes by that we don’t hear a siren from the fire station, so there is naturally a strong interest in fire trucks from many of our tamariki – they especially love making them out of Mobilo! To supporting the children’s consistent curiosity, as well as our own, we sent a letter and pictures of the children’s trucks to the fire chief, inviting them to visit us at kindy.

The firefighters readily accepted, and after much anticipation the day of the visit arrived. The firefighters shared what happens in a fire, what we should do to keep ourselves safe, and they even dressed up to show us what a firefighter looks and sounds like when they are fighting fires, or rescuing people from a smoky building. The children loved the experience, and were really excited to all be invited to climb up and sit in the fire truck before it went home!

As a mark of our appreciation we sang a waiata as our manuhiri, the firefighters, left. In return, we got our very own lights and siren display!

As well as teaching us how to keep safe and reduce anxiety if we should ever experience a fire, this visit was an opportunity to appreciate the people in our community and in what makes Glen Eden so special to  live in.

We have whānau coming in to help us bake scones to take over to our friendly neighbours. We look forward to developing and strengthening our knowledge about our cool and amazing community!