We had a beautiful start to the advent period with our advent festival. Thank you to all the kindergarten whānau for making this a wonderful day.

It has been some years since we have had a spiral in the kindergarten but it was so lovely to return to this tradition last week to mark the time of advent.

We decorated the spiral not in the traditional way but in a way that we feel represents a Steiner school in the southern hemisphere and placed in Aotearoa.

We used driftwood, shells, pumice and paua to line the edges of the spiral and the tamariki collected pohutukawa flowers from the centre to place on the spiral.

The pohutukawa flowers are such a wonderful marker in nature that christmas is nearing. I know for myself as an adult I enjoy watching the first blooms appear in the trees that line Paraparaumu beach and over the weeks leading up they become laden with stunning red flowers.

The whānau did such a wonderful job of keeping the melodies flowing as the tamariki walked in pairs. Mark joined us to provide the key.