Free, fun learning activities at footsteps' Kid's Day Out, 18 February

Tauranga organisation, footsteps™, is hosting a free Kid’s Day Out event on 18 February at the opening of its new site at 150, 17th Avenue, Tauranga South - opposite the Historic Village.

A major part of footsteps’ Kid’s Day Out event will be fun learning workshops where parents and caregivers can discover and try out new learning activities they can do at home with their children.
“footsteps offers a nationwide fully-funded, home-based early childhood learning programme for babies and children from 0-5 years and their caregivers.

“We have around 50 qualified teachers on staff who are continually developing fun, new ways to learn in the home for this age group.

“We’ll be sharing some of these at the Kid’s Day Out, which will give parents and caregivers an idea of the type of support we provide to over 1500 children and caregivers nationwide,” explains Kevin Christie, footsteps co-founder and CEO.

One example of a learning activity being demonstrated at the event is called ‘Dishy Fishes.’ It involves children cutting a triangle out of a paper plate to create a fish’s mouth, gluing the triangleto the back of the plate to create a tail and decorating the fish.

“Dishy Fishes is an example of an activity that helps children discover their creativity while
developing motor skills. By experimenting with ideas and materials during the exercise, children
develop creative confidence, which is important because experimentation is vital to learning,” says
Kylie Powell, Tauranga-based footsteps teacher. 

The Tauranga community is invited to the free Kid’s Day Out which will include a bouncy castle, face painting, sausage sizzle, balloon sculpting and a raffle for a 16” children’s bike and helmet. 

All children attending the event will get the opportunity to help create what footsteps staff hope will
be the largest children’s footprint artwork in the city. Plus, the first 100 children in the gates will get
the chance to create their very own foot painting on canvas to take home.

For more information on footsteps’ Kid’s Day Out on 18 February, visit
footsteps.co.nz/kidsdayout or call 0800 FOOTSTEPS