diff --git a/src/zarr/v3/group.py b/src/zarr/v3/group.py
index 031d9a0ad9..1ef3222660 100644
--- a/src/zarr/v3/group.py
+++ b/src/zarr/v3/group.py
@@ -161,7 +161,6 @@ async def getitem(
     ) -> AsyncArray | AsyncGroup:
 
         store_path = self.store_path / key
-        logger.warning("key=%s, store_path=%s", key, store_path)
 
         # Note:
         # in zarr-python v2, we first check if `key` references an Array, else if `key` references
@@ -305,20 +304,22 @@ async def children(self) -> AsyncGenerator[AsyncArray | AsyncGroup, None]:
 
             raise ValueError(msg)
 
-        async for key in self.store_path.store.list_dir(self.store_path.path):
-            # these keys are not valid child names so we make sure to skip them
-            # TODO: it would be nice to make these special keys accessible programmatically,
-            # and scoped to specific zarr versions
-            if key not in ("zarr.json", ".zgroup", ".zattrs"):
-                try:
-                    # TODO: performance optimization -- batch   
-                    print(key)
-                    child = await self.getitem(key)
-                    # keyerror is raised when `subkey``names an object in the store
-                    # in which case `subkey` cannot be the name of a sub-array or sub-group.
-                    yield child
-                except KeyError:
-                    pass
+        # leaving these imports here for demo purposes
+        from aiostream import stream, async_, pipe
+        from aiostream.aiter_utils import aitercontext
+
+        children = (
+            stream.iterate(self.store_path.store.list_dir(self.store_path.path))
+            | pipe.filter(lambda x: x not in ("zarr.json", ".zgroup", ".zattrs"))
+            |
+            # TODO: need to handle directories without a metadata doc
+            # previously, we gracefully ignored them by catching the KeyError here.
+            pipe.map(async_(self.getitem))
+        )
+
+        async with aitercontext(children) as safe_children:
+            async for child in safe_children:
+                yield child
 
     async def contains(self, child: str) -> bool:
         raise NotImplementedError
diff --git a/src/zarr/v3/store/local.py b/src/zarr/v3/store/local.py
index 1a87c450a0..a6ed37bc87 100644
--- a/src/zarr/v3/store/local.py
+++ b/src/zarr/v3/store/local.py
@@ -154,7 +154,6 @@ async def list(self) -> AsyncGenerator[str, None]:
             if p.is_file():
                 yield str(p)
 
-
     async def list_prefix(self, prefix: str) -> AsyncGenerator[str, None]:
         """Retrieve all keys in the store with a given prefix.
 
@@ -170,7 +169,6 @@ async def list_prefix(self, prefix: str) -> AsyncGenerator[str, None]:
             if p.is_file():
                 yield str(p)
 
-
     async def list_dir(self, prefix: str) -> AsyncGenerator[str, None]:
         """
         Retrieve all keys and prefixes with a given prefix and which do not contain the character
@@ -186,7 +184,7 @@ async def list_dir(self, prefix: str) -> AsyncGenerator[str, None]:
         """
         base = self.root / prefix
         to_strip = str(base) + "/"
-        
+
         try:
             key_iter = base.iterdir()
         except (FileNotFoundError, NotADirectoryError):
@@ -194,4 +192,3 @@ async def list_dir(self, prefix: str) -> AsyncGenerator[str, None]:
 
         for key in key_iter:
             yield str(key).replace(to_strip, "")
-
diff --git a/src/zarr/v3/store/memory.py b/src/zarr/v3/store/memory.py
index dbfa537edf..485ab81edb 100644
--- a/src/zarr/v3/store/memory.py
+++ b/src/zarr/v3/store/memory.py
@@ -78,8 +78,6 @@ async def list_prefix(self, prefix: str) -> AsyncGenerator[str, None]:
                 yield key
 
     async def list_dir(self, prefix: str) -> AsyncGenerator[str, None]:
-        print('prefix', prefix)
-        print('keys in list_dir', list(self._store_dict))
         for key in self._store_dict:
             if key.startswith(prefix + "/") and key != prefix:
                 yield key.strip(prefix + "/").rsplit("/", maxsplit=1)[0]
diff --git a/tests/v3/test_group.py b/tests/v3/test_group.py
index 136a7917ad..0c02f8baa6 100644
--- a/tests/v3/test_group.py
+++ b/tests/v3/test_group.py
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ def test_group_children(store: MemoryStore | LocalStore):
     # if group.children guarantees a particular order for the children.
     # If order is not guaranteed, then the better version of this test is
     # to compare two sets, but presently neither the group nor array classes are hashable.
-    print('getting children')
+    print("getting children")
     observed = group.children
     print(observed)
     print(list([subgroup, subarray, implicit_subgroup]))
@@ -66,8 +66,6 @@ def test_group_children(store: MemoryStore | LocalStore):
     assert subgroup in observed
 
 
-
-
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("store", (("local", "memory")), indirect=["store"])
 def test_group(store: MemoryStore | LocalStore) -> None:
     store_path = StorePath(store)