Lindfors (1999) identified three human urges: ‘to connect with others (social), to understand the world (intellectual), to reveal oneself within it (personal)’ (p. 46). The study reported in this article was therefore based on the following assumptions both consistent with sociocultural theories and with the overview of Te Whāriki provided earlier: that children are born keen to learn, are active agents in their own learning and inquiry, are eager to explore their environment and actively initi- ate interactions with others in order to construct knowledge and understandings relevant to their experiences in their cultures and communities (Rogoff, 2003).