LATEST STORIES
Cultural Days
BestStart Kelvin Grove had a successful holiday programme where we celebrated a different culture and what makes it unique each day.
Australia Day! was first up so we extended our tamariki interests in spiders - creating our own Australian Tarantula's.
Middle Eastern Day! We read stories, engaged in art activities, and made our own traditional clothing. Cambodia day! Cambodia’s many traditions is stone carving. For this activity, we used clay and tools to carve our own stones in a Cambodian design.
Philippine’s Day! We tried to learn one of the most popular folk dances in the Philippines called Tinikling. The traditional dance, which usually involves a pair of two bamboo poles, is considered to be the oldest in the country.
Pasifika Day! Today our tamariki enjoyed some of the crafts, music, and fun of the pasifika culture. We had fun making 'ei katu with paper flowers, weaving, working with the sand and some paper weaving.
India Day! Our children enjoyed a wide variety of art activities such as making traditional lotus flowers and practicing some Henna.
Africa Day! We explored the African culture as a whole and took a closer look at South Africa and the traditions that encompass the Afrikaans heritage. We made some animal masks that represent some of the native animals in South Africa.
Britain Day! We had rock cakes for afternoon tea. We explored where on the map the countries that make up Britain were. We made crowns to be princes and princesses. We had pictures of the flags and national flowers of each country and tried drawing them.
Our Last day was to celebrate New Zealand/Aotearoa Day! Today we celebrated our own country Aotearoa. We started the day by doing the Haka the children love doing the Haka. We then drew koru pictures. What a wonderful time we all had.
Sharing new cultural knowledge and experiences supports children to develop respect and aroha for one another. Embracing diverse cultures creates an equitable learning environment for all tamariki, as we celebrate and affirm who we all are and in return create a positive awareness and understanding, of our own and other cultures.
This links to our BestStart Kelvin Grove value of celebrating every child’s unique mana and individuality.