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Celebrating Waitangi Week
Waitangi is an important date on our centre calendar of events, with First Steps Newmarket having a strong bi-cultural sense of belonging and a diverse multicultural children and families. We encourage our children to honour the spirit of Waitangi all year round, by learning how to keep the Māori culture alive and to care for our precious environment.
Our children spent the week learning about the significance of Waitangi Day. During our Waitangi Week celebration we provided our children with resources and language that help them to gain an understanding of our shared history and partnership in New Zealand/Aotearoa by starting with simple aspects such as Maori language, stories and culture.
The teachers explained to the children what ‘Treaty’ means. “Treaty means it’s a promise,” Kellie, one of our teachers, told the children. Some of the children said “When you make a promise that means you don’t break it.”
The teachers talked about what is special about living in New Zealand and started talking about what makes First Steps Newmarket a nice place to be, and we wrote down all their ideas.
The ideas included promises such as "Atawhai - we use kind words and kind ideas", "Kawenga - we show responsibility" and "Matatika - we pick, play and put away."
We then decided to make 3 promises that we will all remember to do all the times. The children came up the following:
· Be gentle.
· Use kind words.
· Keep your hands and feet to yourself.
The children worked together in writing the Treaty of Arahi.
The treaty was then "signed" on Thursday 7th February using the children's thumbprints as part of the formalities.
One of the most loved learning experience from our Waitangi celebration was participating in working together in re-building our Marae garden area. The children helped in planting flowers, watering the plants, digging the sand and putting rocks around. They demonstrated the values of Kaitiakitanga (conservation), Kotahitanga (working together) and Whanaungatanga. (a sense of family and connection). The teachers discussed with the children that looking after our garden cools the environment, creates textured, living nature of play and reduces water consumption. The children felt empowered as they all contributed in making this Marae garden beautiful. The children portrayed the importance of respectful and mindful actions and interactions when engaging with nature. It provided our children with an understanding of nature and their strong connections to the land. The children demonstrated the spirit of Waitangi is about caring for the Māori culture and caring for our precious environment.
The children also enjoyed helping in making roasted kumara and potatoes and shared kai during afternoon tea. They also learnt where they are from and practised saying the name of their country, school and home address by using our Tōku Pepeha Mat.