September was a wonderful month of celebrating culture, language and diversity at BestStart Flat Bush.
Our tamariki explored a range of cultural events, including Papua New Guinea Language Week, Māori Language Week and the Moon Festival. These experiences provided meaningful opportunities for our tamariki to learn about different cultures through simple words, art, food, music, dance and storytelling.
During Māori Language Week, our tamariki enthusiastically explored te reo Māori through fun and engaging learning experiences. They learned simple words and phrases, practised counting and recognising numbers, and discovered the names of different shapes and colours in te reo Māori.
They also explored traditional Māori patterns, sang waiata and participated in poi dancing. It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm, curiosity and confidence as they learned together.
Through these experiences, our tamariki developed their language and communication skills, confidence, creativity, curiosity and social awareness. They learned to respect different languages, traditions and ways of celebrating, while developing an understanding that our cultures, languages and traditions may be different, but we are all connected.
These shared experiences strengthened our tamariki's sense of whanaungatanga, belonging and identity, reminding us that we may be different, but together we are one.