A fundraiser for the Tauranga Hospital is being held this weekend in the form of a workshop.

New Shoots Tauranga will be holding ‘Sensory Play Saturday' on Saturday from 9.30am to 1pm.

New Shoots director Michelle Pratt says it's an organised parent function on sensory activities and how parents integrate those in the home, with family, with children, and the values of sensory experiences with children.

The workshop will also cover things off like why sensory play is so important for children.

'From a New Shoots perspective, everything that we do has at least one sensory component to it because our infants and young children learn through their sensors, and so example of sensory play would include sand, water, messy play, art activities, music, dance, inspiration, challenging obstacles, crawling through tunnels, experiencing what's light and what's dark, making noise and learning to whisper, and exploring different textures.

'The reasons why it's so important is it signals to the child's brain that helps strengthen and build new neural pathways.”

The reason for doing the workshop alongside a fundraiser for the hospital is because the Tauranga centre is located across the road from the hospital.

Michelle says most of the parents work at the hospital.

'We have strong connections to the hospital because obviously the location, so it's proactive to be supporting the hospital and to be supporting our neighbours and our local community.”

She says there isn't a set goal that they wish to reach but they are just wanting to raise awareness of the hospital right across the road from them and the children's unit there as well.

Items for sale during the workshop include Scentsy burners and wax melts, educational toys and more.

There will be a sausage sizzle and cake sale.

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