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Celebrating Maori Language Week at BestStart Fendalton
We wanted this to feel like a celebration in the Nursery, so we created special bunting to acknowledge that te reo should not only be heard and spoken, but that it also needs to be felt in the environment. Our three figures were, "Me korero te reo Māori - I speak te reo Māori," "Me rongo te reo Māori - I hear te reo Māori," and, "me kite te reo Māori - I feel/experience te reo Māori"
Throughout the week our mat times were focused around waiata and pukapuka in te reo Māori, our nursery favourites were, 'kina, kina' 'tirama tirama ngā whetu' and 'mahunga, pakihiwi, puku, hope, waewae.' Lilly found some wonderful stories at the library and brought them in to share with everyone, the tamariki paying particular interest to the pukapuka about the kararehe/animals.
We also wanted to pay respect to papatūānuku by re-establishing our herb and vegetable garden, so this week was the perfect week for this. The tamariki each planted their own seed and we cant wait to see these begin to grow. Mana aoturoa links closely with this experience by allowing our tamariki to develop a sense of responsibility for the living world and knowledge about how to care for it!
The tamariki also created their own individual koru painting, this koru designs represents new life, growth, and rebirth. We chose this design as we are working hard on growing our knowledge surrounding te reo and tikanga in the nursery. We also wanted to do some art as a nursery whānau, creating a larger koru to represent that this will take a group effort and close partnership with our tamariki and whānau.