Celebrating Indian Independence Day: Culture, Learning and Togetherness
At our centre, celebrating cultural festivals is a beautiful way to honour our whānau and help tamariki develop a strong sense of belonging. This month, we proudly celebrated Indian Independence Day with colour, flavour, music and hands-on learning.
A Taste of Tradition with Khichdi
The heart of our celebration was in the kitchen. Our kaiako Gurpreet and Tarneet led a special experience making khichdi, a much-loved Indian dish.
Tamariki explored raw ingredients through their senses, feeling lentils and rice, smelling spices and watching how they transformed while cooking.
Where Science Meets Healthy Eating
Learning continued with an exciting experiment led by kaiako Shivali and Dikshika. Tamariki were fascinated by a liquid density tower, discovering how mass and volume affect whether things sink or float.
Connecting culture to healthy eating, children then made corn thins snacks decorated in the colours of the Indian national flag: saffron, white and green. Using wholesome, Healthy Heart ingredients, this showed that healthy food can be culturally meaningful and fun.
Music, Culture and Whānau
Our centre was filled with Indian music as tamariki danced and connected with culture.
Thank you to our wonderful whānau who joined us in beautiful traditional attire and shared delicious kai. Your support made this celebration truly special.
This celebration reflected Te Whāriki through Mana Reo (Communication), Mana Whenua (Belonging) and Whānau Tangata (Family and Community).