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Matariki at BestStart Totara Park
At BestStart Tōtara Park, we are learning about the Matariki cluster. We have been engaging in learning through waiata (songs) and pukapuka (books) such as the Matariki Macarena and reading ‘The 7 kites of Matariki’ and ‘The Matariki story’. Through our intentional teaching, we have learned about the 9 stars of Matariki and what each star represents.
As a result of this, we made smoothies with fruit kindly donated by our children and Whānau. This is linked to ‘Tupuārangi’ which is the star connected to the harvesting of elevated foods such as berries and fruits. We also made a soup with root vegetables as these enabled us to connect to ‘Tupuānuku’ which is the star that is associated with food grown in the ground. We also asked for parent contributions of root vegetables to promote collaboration and meaningful contribution.
The tamariki decorated our classrooms with artwork of the stars through collages, painting, and colouring in. The Kaiako organised a Whānau evening where we hosted a Matariki disco. Whānau came and had the opportunity to make connections with one another and shared in Kai together. The star ‘Hiwa-i-te-rangi’ is connected to the promise of a prosperous season. It is also known as the wishing star so we created a wall where parents could share their aspirations for their children and Whānau for the celebration of the Māori new year. One of our parents in the Preschool Ruma weaves beautiful kete (bags) and made each of the tamariki a flax star as a keepsake, teaching us all how to make a star from flax also.