The beanies were made by the willing and nimble fingers of the Precious Babies Southland group.
Fernworth room 18 teacher Ruby Borland-Fraser took her year 3 and 4 pupils to receive the gifts last Friday.
The children chatted with the knitting group to find out all about the hobby and who else the group knitted for.
The group members explained each hat normally took about three hours to knit, but the hardest part was sewing them up.
However, Rowena Jackson resident Shirley Plunkett had managed to produce more than 100 beanies on her knitting loom.
Club president Gwen Brown said group members normally knitted small baby sets to donate to parents of still-born babies at Southland Hospital, but they also knitted toys and baby blankets to gift as well.
Whare Pā Fernworth principal Alison Cook said the hats would be distributed among the school’s 250 children this week.
She said it was unlikely all the children would want a hat, because some already had one.
The children had really enjoyed their trip to collect the gifts.
"The kids are pretty excited. They’re walking past the boxes with wide eyes, eyeing up their favourites.
"We are lucky to have all those random wee groups that just do things like this off their own bat — it’s brilliant.
Mrs Brown said the knitters met at the Graham Cockroft Cycle Park rooms after lunch on the last Friday of each month and the club members welcomed any wool donations and new members at any time.
