Beststart MacDonald Street has been loving exploring our local connections this year and supporting our tamariki to make connections to play through our community!
We have spent a lot of time buildings relationships with Omanu primary school and our local maunga, 'Mauao' to help us find our local identity.
Through this exploring we were invited to Waikari Marae located in matapihi which is 12 minutes away from us by our local primary school Omanu!
We were very honoured to be welcomed onto the Marae and spend time with older tamariki being taught and supported to learn new activities that taught us more about Te Ao Maori and be enriched my Te Reo Maori by hearing the local legends and waiata of this Marae.
We were encouraged to act out the local legends, weave together harakeke, be blessed moko face painting and overall just have lots of fun and experience making stronger connections to land and people and share in knowledge. We got to enjoy this excursion during Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori week and definitely look forward to bringing this learning back into our own early learning centre.
Over time and with guidance and encouragement, children become increasingly capable of making connections between people, places and things in their world | te waihanga hononga