matariki celebrations

This term our whanau night will be held on Friday 22nd June, this coincides with Matarikii, otherwise known as the Maori New Year. We thought it would be a great idea to have our own Matariki celebrations and would like to invite families to share in the festivities with us.

There will be the usual gold coin donation for a shared kai but as a special treat we have planned to lay down a traditional hangi. This will require an upfront cost for those families who wish to order a hangi dinner. This is very special event and we would like to thank Anaru’s Koru and whanau for offering to do this for us.

As part of our other celebrations we will also have a brazier fire going  where children will have opportunities to toast marshmallows and eat smores (toasted marshmallow between two plain biscuits).

We suggest that children bring a torch as their will also be a treasure hunt for stars. What could be better than exploring the centre by night.

If any of our musical parents would like to bring along their guitars, ukulele’s, bongo’s or other instruments please do so as a sing-a-long will be a must.

What is Matariki?

Matariki is the Maori name for a group of seven stars known as the Pleiades star cluster. Some people think of Matariki as a mother star with six daughters, and it is often referred to as the Seven Sisters.

Matariki appears in the eastern sky sometime around the shortest day of the year, and is thought to determine how successful the harvest crop will be in the coming season. The brighter the stars, the more productive the crop will be.

Traditionally Matariki was celebrated by gathering with whanau (family) and reflecting on the past. The festival’s connection to the stars provided an opportunity for families to remember their whakapapa (genealogy) and those ancestors who had passed away to the heavens. Offerings were made to land-based gods who would help provide good crops, and new trees were planted to signal new beginnings.

Many of these traditional celebrations are still practiced today, however there are many others ways that Matariki is celebrated also. Most celebrations focus around music, song, dance, food and family, and celebrations can last up to 3 days.

The Mandala
A group of children had been exploring pattern and design through their art. This resulted in Anne from Taradale Library bringing in books on this topic on one of her visits. One of the books included a photos of a mandala. Soon we noticed mandals’s appearing in some of the children’s art work.

It was suggested that maybe this group of children could put their heads together to come up with an idea to design a group mandala for them all to work together on. It was suggested that it could be put on the wall so that everyone could see what a mandala was.

To begin with the children chose a geometric design in from one of our library books. The teachers then helped to drew this design onto a large white table cloth.

A nature walk at Puketapu Domain resulted in the children collecting lots of interesting items: pinecones, moss, sticks, bark, sand, leaves, rocks, berries, grass, etc. All of which were brought back to the centre. Our collage area never looked so well stocked.

Children created the mandala by taking turns to place the various items onto the geometric pattern, deciding on the placement. When all was agreed with the final look the children used PVA to glue the items down. Please take time out to view the mandala on display. 

What is a mandala? The word "mandala" is from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit. Loosely translated to mean "circle,"  the mandala appears in all aspects of life: the celestial circles we call earth, sun, and moon, as well as conceptual circles of friends, family, and community. Creating a group mandala is a unifying experience in which people can express themselves individually within a unified structure.

children and the internet

Children and the internet

The internet offers your child a wealth of education and learning opportunities, entertainment, and exciting ways to connect to friends and family. Many children are now beginning to explore this exciting online world at a very young age.

Learning how to utilise information, behave ethically and responsibly, manage risks online and employ technology effectively, are important skills for all ‘digital citizens’. When your child first goes online you can introduce them to Hector’s World, a free online animated educational programme for children aged 2-9 years old which offers children a fun and magical world in which to learn and play.

Hector and his underwater friends promote the skills and values children need to grow into confident, knowledgeable and caring members of the online community - the ‘building blocks’ of digital citizenship.

http://hectorsworld.netsafe.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/parent-hand-out-november-2009.pdf to see the full newletter

We as early childhood educators are aware of the potential benefits technologies such as the internet, email and digital photography bring to children’s learning and development. It can however be easy to forget that

using these technologies, particularly in the presence of young children,creates a responsibility to carefully manage the associated risks.

As part of our ongoing commitment to childrens learning through ict we would like to share with you hectors world, which we have up and running on both of our computers