The Paris Olympics 2024 have provided us with some really rich opportunities for learning at Milford Kindergarten. Not only have we been exploring different Olympic events through our play but we’ve been reading newspapers about the Olympics and sharing our own understandings about sportsmanship, fairness, striving to do our best and what it means to be an athlete and represent your country. Exploring current events like the Olympics 2024 is one of the ways we seek to support tamariki to feel connected to events in the wider world. As we can’t attend the Olympics ā tinana in person, we used the iPad to view short video clips of athletes competing in events to inform and inspire our own explorations. Kaiako are led by tamariki interest and pursue those events which our tamariki want to share, explore or in some cases lead including equestrian, trampoline, long jump, gymnastics, running and kayaking. We have also been using copies of newspapers to encourage tamariki to draw on and share their own knowledge from home about Olympic events and all of the ceremonial and competitive aspects of the Olympics. This has inspired the creation of our own draft/proof of the newspaper based on what we are interested in, and in reporting our tamariki participation in a newspaper type format.

Not everyone gets a medal-A medal ceremony at kindergarten provides an opportunity to learn about striving to do your best.

Athletes have produced their own medals and conducted medal award ceremonies. Isla Stapleton, Franklin Yan are Asher Bott on the podium winning bronze, silver and gold medals for the 4 x 100m relay event run earlier today. This is the first time we have run a relay at Kindergarten during these olympics but the event was well organised by tamariki who not only set up the track and developed their own rules based on those of the races they had watched at home to develop an event but facilitated their own medal ceremony complete with national anthem. A highlight the following day was Whaea Sarah bringing in a real relay baton from the London Olympics 2012 which tamariki were able to handle and investigate.

Tamariki also planned and organised a canoe slalom event which ran over two days and provided opportunities not only to compete but to act as a videographer. Videographers were given agency to record the event from their own perspective-noticing those parts of the action which they valued and wanted to draw attention to.

Finally to cap off all our celebrations and explorations one of our whānau’s aunts actually won an Olympic medal and we had the opportunity to create a short video message to share with “our very own Olympian”. What a wonderful learning adventure we have taken together during these Olympic Games and who knows, perhaps we may see some of these tamariki in future Olympics too! Sock wrestling anyone?