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Matariki Whaanau Evening
Welcoming in the Māori New Year with the viewing of the Matariki Star Cluster, was a great reason for our centre community to gather. We wanted the focus of our evening to be on learning about the significance of this ocassion, and being together as a learning community, to build relationships and have fun. During the day each class completed winter planting in our vegetable gardens.
The kaiako engaged in korero with our tamariki teaching them about being kaitiaki or guardians over our growing kai. We started our evening off with perfomances of waiata from each of our classes. Our whaanau came with cameras and huge smiles as they watched their tamariki sing "Ma is White," "Baby Shark", "Matariki Macarena," and then perform with our rakau (which we made by hand last year for Matariki) "E Papa Waiari." We discussed the stars and what they are historically thought to indicate or predict for the upcoming year, as they are dim or bright in the early morning sky.
This was a great opportunity to grow our knowledge together, especially for our parents who were experiencing this celebration for the first time. It was a wonderful chance for us as staff to see our tamariki naturally engaging with their families, enjoying delicious kai, and for all of us to get to know each other on a more personal level.