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The Matariki Night Sky
As part of a whole centre approach, we are celebrating Matariki. In the classroom, we shared the book ‘Celebrating Matariki‘ where we looked in detail at the illustration of the night sky. As a group, we painted the night sky and discussed the colours we want to use to represent the sky, deciding on blues and blacks.
As part of this celebration, we studied different artists and their techniques as a collective and we experimented with Jackson Pollock's style of painting. We used white paint and fine brushes to create the stars and flick the paint onto the cardboard. The children really enjoyed flicking paint here and there.
There are many different aspects of learning happening during this process. These techniques help to develop gross motor skills and build muscles, to have awareness of our surroundings, and gauge the strength we need to flick the brush. As the work progressed, we evaluated and made a decision through observation and a discussion on whether we needed to add more stars or whether our masterpiece was finished.
The children created the nine stars of Matariki to finish off our display. Overall this was a fun way to learn new ways of being creative, learning techniques, and using paint.