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Collaborative Matariki Art
Matarki hunga, Matariki ahunga nui. Matariki has many admirers, Matariki brings us together.
Our tamariki worked together to create their very own Matarki night sky - Rangi pō Matariki. They used a mixture of whites, yellows, and gold paint to make their vision come to life. The tamariki had fun flicking, dabbing, and brushing the paint onto the blank canvas. Every now and then, one of the children would take a step back and admire their work. Once the children had covered the material, we discussed how else we could make it look like the night sky. One child suggested glitter to represent the sparkling and shiny whetu (stars). Out came the glitter and they took turns carefully sprinkling the glitter onto the paint.
What a beautiful work of art achieved through collaboration among the children. Through collaboration with our peers, we can work together to achieve a common goal, and this stunning piece of mahi toi was the result of teamwork. When the arts are used in ways that strongly value active engagement and the creative endeavors of tamariki, they can develop many other skills and attributes that are embedded in Te Whāriki.
The arts are a particularly good context for learning about identity, well-being, and emotional regulation – through the emphasis on self-expression - cultural ways of being, doing, and knowing - new perspectives – encouraging tamariki to play around and try out roles and ideas of the imagination - communicating experiences, ideas, and thinking - working independently and collaboratively – contributing to a group or community - evaluating and thinking critically. Te Whariki (2017)