Te Whāriki

Infants are learning quickly and depend on adults to respond to their individual care needs. Through caregiving practices such as those for feeding and changing (sometimes referred to as ‘caregiving rituals’), infants are learning to trust other people and that they are worthy of love.

Recognising their rights as children, kaiako are respectful of infants and, where appropriate, enable their agency.

Toddlers are developing their identities as independent learners.

They may be starting ECE for the first time or transitioning between or within settings. They are discovering how to navigate the expectations they encounter in different contexts.

Their desire to explore and know their world, to increase their independence and to have greater control can be supported by familiar adults who know and understand them.

Young children have increasing capacity for language and inquiry and for understanding other points of view.

They are becoming much more aware of cultural expectations, understanding that different cultures have different expectations and that what is appropriate in one context may not be appropriate in another.

• From birth, infants can communicate their needs and, increasingly over time, anticipate events. They rely on kaiako to sensitively observe their cues and gestures in order to meet their needs and provide opportunities for learning.
• Infants are rapidly acquiring communication skills, which kaiako support through thoughtful interactions within a language-rich environment.
• Infants are developing trust that their physical, emotional, cultural, and spiritual needs will be met in predictable ways. They need the security of knowing that a familiar adult is nearby.
• Infants learn through respectful, reciprocal interactions with people, places and things and require a peaceful environment where kaiako pay careful attention to the level of sensory stimulation.
• Infants can be subject to rapid fluctuations of health and wellbeing. For this reason, they require consistent and attentive care.

• Toddlers are active, curious, and seeking to make sense of their world. They enjoy testing limits, causes, and effects as they develop and refine their working theories. Kaiako support them by being attentive to their interests and providing opportunities for both new and repeat learning experiences.
• Toddlers communicate both verbally and non-verbally and are developing both receptive and productive language skills. Their language learning is supported through conversations, stories, and songs in which they play an increasing part.
• Toddlers are learning to self-regulate amidst feelings that are sometimes intense and unpredictable. Kaiako support self-regulation by staying calm and offering them choices. Toddlers participate and learn through observation, exploration, and social interaction. They take increasing leadership in cultural practices and everyday routines and activities.

• Young children recognise a wide range of patterns and regularities in the world around them and will question, explore and test things they find puzzling or unexpected.
• They recognise and respond to ‘nonsense’ and humour.
• They are increasingly able to see their family and whānau, home, marae or ECE setting in the context of the wider world.
• They have new capacities for knowledge development, symbolising and representation, and growing confidence with language, recognition of letters, numbers, and environmental print, and sounds in words, rhymes, songs and music.
• Many are becoming competent bilingual or multilingual speakers.
• They enjoy being creative, expressing themselves through art, music and dance.
• Their developing literacy and mathematical abilities embrace new purposes, such as reasoning, verbal exploration, puzzling and finding out about the physical and social world.
• Their greater working memory contributes to their capacity for telling stories, reciting waiata and karakia, developing more complex working theories and problem-solving strategies, sustaining attention and being more persistently curious.
• They are developing social skills that enable them to establish and maintain friendships and participate reciprocally in whanaungatanga relationships.
• They are beginning to be able to see another person’s point of view.
• They are establishing, consolidating, and refining locomotor and other movement skills, and they are seeking greater physical challenges.
• They are further developing their learner identities through the use of strategies such as planning, checking, and questioning and by reflecting on experiences and tasks.
• They use play opportunities, talking about and trying out ideas with others, and their imaginations to explore their own and others’ cultures and identities.

• Their health is promoted

• Keeping themselves healthy and caring for themselves | te oranga nui

• Understanding of their bodies and how they function and how to keep themselves healthy.
• Respect for tapu as it relates to themselves and others.
• Confidence, independence, and a positive attitude towards self-help and self-care skills relating to food preparation, healthy eating and drinking, hygiene, toileting, resting, sleeping, washing and dressing.
• An awareness of hauora and healthy lifestyles.
• A sense of personal worth and cultural identity and the ability to make choices, focus attention, maintain concentration and be involved.
• An ability to express emotional needs and ask for attention and to trust that their needs will be met.
• Capacity for self-regulation and resilience in the face of challenges.
• Capacity for tolerating and enjoying a moderate degree of change, surprise, uncertainty and puzzlement.
• Knowledge about how to keep themselves safe from harm and the ability to take risks.
• A sense of responsibility for their own wellbeing and that of others.
• Respect for tikanga and rules about not harming others and the environment and an understanding of the reasons for such rules.

• Their emotional wellbeing is nurtured

• Managing themselves and expressing their feelings and needs | te whakahua whakaaro

• They are kept safe from harm.

• Keeping themselves and others safe from harm. | te noho haumaru

• Connecting links with the family and the wider world are affirmed and extended

• Making connections between people, places and things in their world | te waihanga hononga

• An ability to connect their learning in the ECE setting with experiences at home and in familiar cultural communities and a sense of themselves as global citizens.
• Interest and pleasure in learning about the wider, unfamiliar world.
• A feeling of belonging – and that they have a right to belong – in the ECE setting.
• Knowledge about features of the local area, such as a river or mountain (this may include their spiritual significance).
• Ability to play an active part in the running of the programme, take on different roles and take responsibility for their own actions.
• Skills in caring for the environment, such as cleaning, fixing and gardening.
• Ability to help others with self-care skills.
• Ability to anticipate routines, customs and regular events and to know what is acceptable and valued behaviour.
• Predictability and consistency in their behaviour towards, and responding to, others.
• Understanding of the reasons for rules about acceptable behaviour.
• Understanding of the kaupapa of the ECE setting and the need to be fair to all children.

• They know that they have a place

• Taking part in caring for this place | te manaaki i te taiao

• They feel comfortable with the routines, customs and regular events

• Understanding how things work here and adapting to change | te mārama ki te āhua o ngā whakahaere me te mōhio ki te panoni

• They know the limits and boundaries of acceptable behaviour.

• Showing respect for kaupapa, rules and the rights of others | te mahi whakaute

• There are equitable opportunities for learning, irrespective of gender, ability, age, ethnicity or background

• Treating others fairly and including them in play | te ngākau makuru

• Respect for others, the ability to identify and accept another point of view, and acceptance of and ease of interaction with children of other genders, capabilities and ethnic groups.
• Confidence that their family background is viewed positively in the ECE setting.
• Confidence to stand up for themselves and others against biased ideas and discriminatory behaviour.
• A positive learner identity and a realistic perception of themselves as being able to acquire new interests and capabilities.
• Awareness of the strategies they use to learn new skills and generate and refine working theories.
• Ability to use memory, perspective taking, metacognition and other cognitive strategies for thinking, and ability to make links between past, present and future.
• Awareness of their own special strengths and confidence that these are recognised and valued.
• Social skills and the ability to take responsibility for fairness in their interactions with others.
• Strategies and skills, including conversation skills, for initiating, maintaining and enjoying relationships with others.
• Strategies for resolving conflicts in peaceful ways and an awareness of cultural values and expectations.
• A sense of responsibility and respect for the needs and wellbeing of the group, including the ability to take responsibility for group decisions.
• Awareness of the ways in which they can make contributions to groups and group wellbeing, including within digitally mediated contexts.

• They are affirmed as individuals

• Recognising and appreciating their own ability to learn | te rangatiratanga

• They are encouraged to learn with and alongside others

• Using a range of strategies and skills to play and learn with others | te ngākau aroha

• They develop nonverbal communication skills for a range of purposes

• Using gesture and movement to express themselves | he kōrero ā-tinana

• Ability to express their feelings and emotions in a range of appropriate non-verbal ways and to respond to the nonverbal requests of others.
• Use of responsive and reciprocal skills such as turn-taking.
• Use of a large vocabulary and complex syntax, awareness of sounds in words, rhythm and rhyme, recognition of some letters and print concepts and interest in storytelling in one or more languages and in reading and writing.
• Confidence that their first language is valued and increasing ability in the use of at least one language.
• An appreciation of te reo Māori as a living and relevant language.
• An understanding that symbols can be ‘read’ by others and that thoughts, experiences and ideas can be represented as words, pictures, numbers, sounds, shapes, models and photographs in print and digital formats.
• Familiarity with and enjoyment of stories and literature valued by the cultures represented in the community.
• Familiarity with numbers and their uses by exploring and observing their use in activities that have meaning and purpose.
• Ability to explore, enjoy and describe patterns and relationships related to quantity, number, measurement, shape and space.
• Recognition that numbers can amuse, delight, comfort, illuminate, inform and excite.
• Use of language to express feelings and attitudes, negotiate, create and retell stories, communicate information and solve problems.
• Skill and confidence with art and craft processes, such as cutting, drawing, collage, painting, printmaking, weaving, stitching, carving and constructing.
• Skills with multiple media and tools, such as crayons, pencils, paint, blocks, wood, musical instruments, movement and educational technologies that can be used for expressing moods or feelings or representing information.
• Ability to be creative and expressive through a variety of activities, such as visual arts activities, imaginative play, carpentry, storytelling, drama and making music.
• Understanding and familiarity with music, song, dance, drama and art from a range of cultures and recognition that these media can amuse, delight, comfort, illuminate, inform and excite and that they may suit particular cultural occasions.

• They develop verbal communication skills for a range of purposes

• Understanding oral language and using it for a range of purposes | he kōrero ā-waha

• They experience the stories and symbols of their own and other cultures

• Enjoying hearing stories and retelling and creating them | he kōrero paki
• Recognising print symbols and concepts and using them with enjoyment, meaning and purpose | he kōrero tuhituhi
• Recognising mathematical symbols and concepts and using them with enjoyment, meaning and purpose | he kōrero pāngarau

• They discover different ways to be creative and expressive

• Expressing their feelings and ideas using a wide range of materials and modes | he kōrero auaha

• Their play is valued as meaningful learning and the importance of spontaneous play is recognised

• Playing, imagining, inventing and experimenting | te whakaaro me te tūhurahura i te pūtaiao

• Ability and inclination to cope with uncertainty, imagine alternatives, make decisions, choose materials and devise their own problems.
• An understanding that trying things out, exploring, playing with ideas and materials and collaborating with others are important and valued ways of learning.
• Confidence in play and a repertoire of symbolic, imaginative or dramatic play routines.
• Ability to pursue an interest or a project for a sustained period of time.
• Curiosity about the world and the ability and inclination to share interests with others.
• Confidence in exploring, puzzling over and making sense of the world, using such strategies as setting and solving problems, looking for patterns, classifying, guessing, using trial and error, observing, planning, comparing, explaining, engaging in reflective discussion and listening to stories.
• Use of all the senses and physical abilities to make sense of the world.
• Control over their bodies, including locomotor and movement skills, agility and balance, and the ability, coordination and confidence to use their bodies to take risks and physical challenges.
• Recognition of different domains of knowledge and how they relate to understanding people, places and things.
• Ability to represent discoveries using creative and expressive media, including digital media.
• Curiosity and the ability to inquire into, research, explore, generate and modify working theories about the natural, social, physical, spiritual and human-made worlds.
• A sense of responsibility for the living world and knowledge about how to care for it.

• They gain confidence in and control of their bodies

• Moving confidently and challenging themselves physically | te wero ā-tinana

• They learn strategies for active exploration, thinking and reasoning

• Using a range of strategies for reasoning and problem solving | te hīraurau hopanga

• They develop working theories for making sense of the natural, social, physical and material worlds.

• Making sense of their worlds by generating and refining working theories | te rangahau me te mātauranga