Outdoor Play Week – Competition Winners
We recently celebrated Outdoor Play Week (4-8 Nov) across the motu, inviting families to visit centres and experience some of the awesome outdoor play experiences on offer in recognition of Play Week Aotearoa (run annually by Sport NZ).
The theme of this years’ Outdoor Play Week was “The Wonderful Outdoors” or “Tino Taiao”, and we enjoyed seeing all the wonderful play invitations and outings you shared!
Competition winners
Congratulations to our competition winners, who will receive Playcentre Shop vouchers.
Lauren Tanner from Linwood Playcentre won the $100 voucher for her description of what she loves about outdoor play at Playcentre.
“Our tamariki at Linwood Playcentre love being in nature and playing with sand, rocks, sticks, water, leaves, flowers, shells, pinecones…. They can be so creative with the simplest of things, imagining, experimenting and creating in nature. We also value them learning to be kaitiaki to the land, and looking after it. We do weekly excursions as all our whānau love being outside together.”
Ōmokoroa Playcentre won the $250 voucher for their fantastic video collage of outdoor play and excursions. View it here.
From the beach to the bush, mud slides and leaf piles, exciting excursions, and campfire cooking, these little explorers and their whānau really embody the spirit of Playcentre Outdoor Play Week!
Thank you for all your wonderful entries and for sharing some incredible videos and photos showcasing what makes outdoor play at Playcentre special.
Playcentre Community Leaders Facebook Group
A reminder that we have a new Facebook group for leaders of local Playcentre communities to discuss ideas, ask questions and support each other as a wider leadership community across Aotearoa.
If you hold a leadership position at your local Centre, we encourage you to join the Playcentre Community Leaders group.
Planning for 2025
To support centres with their planning for 2025 we now have the Playcentre Term Dates and our Playcentre Events available on our website.
After receiving feedback from centres, we have decided to swap the dates for Messy Play Week and Playcentre Open Week around, so that Messy Play Week will be held in the warmer month of March 2025 and Playcentre Open Week will be held in August 2025.
We have also included Outdoor Play Week in November 2025, to tie in with Sport NZ’s Play Week Aotearoa held at the same time and a new event in May 2025 to celebrate Playcentre Education, to tie in the with International Day of Families on Thursday 15 May.
The aim of these events is to engage with new whānau and encourage them to visit your centre, as part of the overall Grow your Centre campaign. We hope these national campaigns will support new enrolments and increased funding, to help your centre grow and thrive!
