Criterion PF302
A sufficient quantity and variety of furniture, equipment, and materials is provided to ensure children have timely access to appropriate learning challenges, experiences, and opportunities that support their developmental stages, abilities, and current and emerging interests.
Guidance
How to show you are complying
You must provide a sufficient quantity and variety of furniture, equipment, and materials that provide children with appropriate challenges, opportunities and experiences.
They need to support different developmental stages, abilities, and current and emerging interests.
Make sure the furniture and resources suit the range of ages, abilities, and interests of the children attending. Child-sized tables and chairs support young children while adult-sized seating provide comfort for feeding infants.
Children need to be able to access materials that match their interests and help them build their skills and abilities.
Consider open-ended resources and materials that can be used in different ways and are easy to move.
When items have a range of uses, children have more choice and control over how they use the space and resources which offers challenges and support learning experiences.
Observe children's interests to make sure your equipment remains relevant to children’s interests across the ECE activity room.
Timely access
Children should have timely access to furniture, equipment and different material.
The amount of furniture, equipment, and materials will vary in different services. What’s important is that what you provide is suitable for the range of ages and abilities of children attending and that there’s enough, so children don’t have to wait too long to use them. This does not mean there has to be one of everything for each child at the ECE activity room.
When assessing whether you comply with PF302
Questions we are likely to ask
How do you make sure children have timely access to equipment and other materials in your service?
How do you make sure that you have a sufficient quantity and range of equipment appropriate to the learning challenges, experiences and interests of all children?
We are likely to look at, measure or count
The quantity and range of outdoor and indoor furniture, equipment and materials available to children.
If children waiting for long periods to access equipment.
How the furniture, materials and equipment support children’s abilities, learning experiences, and their current and emerging interests.
The tools below are here to support you, but you do not have to use them. You can use other tools or methods that work better for your service.
Examples of open-ended resources include:
blocks or loose parts
cardboard boxes
art supplies
sand and water.
Children learn by interacting with people, places and things. The furniture, equipment and resources provided to children impacts on their learning, and how they view themselves and others as capable and competent learners.
Doing more than the minimum can shape better outcomes for children. Here are some ideas or examples you might like to consider.
Do the furniture, equipment and materials in your service:
reflect cultural differences at the service
reflect the bicultural nature of Te Whāriki
promote and protect written and spoken language
support parent’s aspirations for their children’s learning
open-ended equipment that can be used in a variety of ways is usually a good investment
promote inclusivity and avoid gender bias?
It is a good idea to consider a balance between natural products and man-made equipment and materials.
Plastics products are usually cheaper and easy to clean, but they do not usually last as long or have the same aesthetic appeal as products made from natural materials.
You can include areas where:
children can play together
places where they can play quietly on their own
cosy, calm areas.
Outdoor equipment
If there is an outdoor play area provided for children in a hospital-based setting, the service will need to consider the type of outdoor equipment to provide.