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Māori Atua in the Science Corner

At Best Start Waihi East, we have transformed our science corner in to a magical corner using our Atua. It all began with the book "In the Beginning". Our children love to hear the story and we thought what better way to extend on their knowledge than to bring the book to life in our centre! Our children all participated in the creation of the area, whether it was painting the sky, grass, Te Marama, or our Whetu, or creating the ika and jelly fish. Children have been learning about the Atua and relating them to everyday life. They love to relate back to the book pointing out the gods in the book and on the wall and you often find groups of children in the corner talking about the Atua. Our centre has gone from our children not knowing a lot about our Māori Atua to using their names. Tāwhirimātea is often talked about in the centre from our children, relating him to the weather. Tāne Mahuta has been another big part of our centre with the childrens love of insects and plants. Our planning has become based around this wall, and our planning around Papatūānuku this month reflects on that.