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Bay Kindy's Matariki Celebration

Matariki is a time to prepare, to share ideas, remember the past and to celebrate the future. Matariki (Tiny eyes) celebrates the diversity of life. It's a celebration of culture, language, spirit and people. We are aware that some staff and families may not be aware of or celebrate Matariki therefore as part of our commitment to the bi-cultural heritage of Aotearoa and our diverse multicultural community we are further developing an awareness of the significant celebrations of the cultures in our community and incorporating some of these into our programme where possible. We want to celebrate Matariki at BestStart Bay Kindy with our tamariki, whanau and community. We will incorporate activities to learn about Matariki starting with information, books and stories about Matariki. We will also incorporate Te Reo into the programme as much as possible with Kaiako and tamariki learning new words and waiata together. We will host a cultural performance and shared dinner for our whanau to attend as food is an important part of this celebration as well as great way to bring our community together. To extend on this we will encourage nga tamariki to participate in a variety of activities including –

· Researching information about Matariki including the constellation / star names.

· Stories of Matariki – including 7 Kites of Matariki, Stolen stars of Matariki, Tawhirimatea, Twinkle, Twinkle Matariki, 7 fish legend.

· Matariki waiata including Waiata – National anthem, Greeting song, Tirama Tirama, Matariki Macarena, Tu tira mai nga iwi, Nga Tamariki O Matariki,

· Cultural performance at our whanau shared dinner.

· Art activities – 9 stars whetu activities, Headbands

· Weaving activities.

· Kites - group project - see book seven kites of Matariki.

At the end of all this wonderful learning we held a great whanau event on the 14th of July to celebrate the great learning that they Tamariki had experienced over the weeks. It was a great way to reflect our centre vision throughout this planning as it indeed allowed our Tamariki to be 'Ready for learning Ready for Life'