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Happy Matariki from BestStart Oraha Road
At BestStart Oraha Road, in the investigators room (catering for 3-5 year olds)as part of our Matariki celebrations we have offered a variety of learning experiences this past month. Matariki is a star cluster which appears in the night sky during mid-winter. According to the Maramataka (the Māori lunar calendar), the reappearance of Matariki, brings the old lunar year to a close and marks the beginning of the new year. Hence, Matariki is associated with the Māori New Year.
For one of the learning experiences the tamariki explored ta moko. Ta moko is a māori tattoo. Traditionally the designs in a ta moko represented particular Maori tribes. However, the ta moko can have a range of other legitimate meanings, such as your family (physical lives), prosperity, travel, strength, your career path etc. After showing the tamariki (children) some different ta moko,they were super excited to receive a ta Moko. Don’t they look awesome!?
We have weekly kapa haka sessions and for a couple of the sessions the past month we focused on ti rakau.Ti rakau is a Māori stick game - played with wooden sticks. Players sit or kneel in a circle a little distance apart from each other. Each player has two sticks. In time to the accompanying song they tap the sticks up and down in time to the beat. Our children were super good at this and all the teachers were surprised at how quickly they picked up the moves and were in time to the beat. So much so that we even moved on to the advanced moves and practiced throwing them to each other! Ti rakau is great for hand-eye coordination and rhythm.
We also read many stories about Matariki and the different versions. Various areas in Aotearoa (New Zealand) believe in different purakau (stories) about Matariki. We explored some of he stories. Our tamariki were particularly fond of the story about Tāwhirimatea (Guardian of the wind) who crushed up his lightening bolt eyes and threw them to the skies, creating the stars. Learning stories about the different purakau is a great way for our tamariki to acknowledge the bicultural history in Aotearoa.
We also linked Matariki to our creative arts. They created stars during carpentry and also beautiful kites using the hot glue gun. Both learning experiences require many different social skills such as turn-taking and sharing. Also creativity & imagination, as with the kites there was no ‘proper way’ to complete it. It was up to the tamariki to use their imaginations.
To conclude Matariki, we hosted a disco at the centre. Inviting all whānau to attend also. We always really enjoy having whānau join us in centre celebrations. We had great atmosphere, awesome music, amazing sparkling clothing and fantastic dancing! Overall, a great event to tie up our Matariki celebrations.