Kōanga | Spring
New growth, life cycles, weather shifts, planting, and outdoor noticing.
Open spring plan →Seasonal curriculum planning for early childhood settings
Making Te Whāriki Practical Through Seasonal Learning
A comprehensive guide connecting Aotearoa's four seasons with meaningful early childhood experiences. Designed to make Te Whāriki visible, practical, and accessible for kaiako and whānau.
Each season is organised into three months, and each month is broken into weekly plans with practical learning experiences that kaiako and tamariki can explore together.
The Four Seasons Approach
Each season responds to Aotearoa's natural rhythms and offers a practical pathway for linking daily experiences with Te Whāriki strands and learning outcomes.
Raumati | Summer
Water, movement, abundance, sun safety, and being outside together.
Open summer plan →Ngahuru | Autumn
Harvest, cooler weather, colour change, food, and preparing for winter.
Open autumn plan →Hōtoke | Winter
Matariki, storytelling, cosy spaces, reflection, and signs of renewal.
Open winter plan →Connecting Big Ideas to Everyday Practice
Each weekly guide is designed to make the curriculum more visible by linking practical, everyday experiences with Te Whāriki strands in language that is easier to recognise and discuss.
Mana Atua
Wellbeing through care, safety, body awareness, and emotional security.
Mana Whenua
Belonging through place, routines, relationships, and cultural connection.
Mana Tangata
Contribution through participation, fairness, helping, and collaboration.
Mana Reo
Communication through stories, symbols, oral language, and creative expression.
Mana Aotūroa
Exploration through inquiry, noticing, problem solving, and investigation.
More Pathways to Explore
Alongside seasonal planning, the website can also grow into a theme library, a locally rooted Aotearoa activity map, and a future whānau space.
Learning themes
Animals, Plants, Emotional and Social Competency
Browse ECE activity ideas organised by rich curriculum themes, including wellbeing, relationships, and identity.
Local placesYour Place, Your Voice
Explore activities linked to regions, places, and local communities across New Zealand.
NZ curriculum nextLiteracy, Mathematics, Science, and More
Sketch future pathways that connect early childhood interests with later curriculum learning areas.
WhānauFamily-Facing Space in Development
See the placeholder page for this future area while the direction is still being explored.
Next Pathways
This section looks ahead to the learning areas children may meet later in the New Zealand Curriculum, while still keeping ideas practical and grounded in early childhood.
Learning area
Literacy
Story, oral language, symbols, mark-making, and confidence with communication.
Focus: Helping literacy grow naturally from meaningful experiences.
Learning areaMathematics
Pattern, measuring, sorting, number, and noticing maths in everyday play and routines.
Focus: Making mathematical thinking visible in familiar contexts.
Learning areaScience
Observation, prediction, testing, life cycles, materials, and wonder-driven inquiry.
Focus: Keeping science practical, sensory, and rooted in children's questions.
Learning areaArts and Social Sciences
Identity, creativity, history, community, and culture through shared projects and stories.
Focus: Linking tamariki's worlds with broader curriculum ideas.
Resources
Books
Share titles children genuinely love and that support curiosity, language, and learning.
Sharing
If a centre has useful resources it no longer needs, this can become a place to share them on.
Digital Tools
Tell me what digital tools would help your teaching, and I can try to build them for everyone to use.
About This Project
I am Yunliang (Oliver) Su, an ECE teacher and AUT graduate. This project began with a desire to create a teaching website that shares curriculum ideas through a seasonal lens and makes curriculum thinking easier to use in everyday practice.
The site is intended to support kaiako, whānau, and communities by making learning more visible, more practical, and more connected to children's real lives, local places, and future pathways.
The starting hope is simple: let early childhood education help children, communities, and society become more beautiful.