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An Adventure to the Fairy Doors
This month to support our learning and development, for both Kaiako (teachers) and nga tamariki (Children) in the centre. We went on an excursion to support our cultural narrative development, by developing our very own cultural narrative for Beststart Parklands, has been a big learning opportunity for us all! To support this and to ensure we authentically develop our cultural narrative, not only we as Kaiako, but also our tamariki and their whanau had to be involved.
To do this we researched our culturally significant places near by in the area of Parklands, we are lucky enough that we have the beach, the forest, and the wetlands all near by. We had already visited the wetlands, so next on our list was to visit Bottle lake forest. In the weeks leading up to it we discussed this with nga tamariki, and we even designed two fairy houses. These fairy houses were coming with us, to stay in the fairy forest and represent Beststart Parklands.
Our kaiako Sarah organised a bus, to charter nga tamariki and our whanau help to the forest. Sarah mapped out a walk for after the fairy doors part of the forest, where we would walk to the playground afterwards and the bus would collect us from there. It was such a fun morning out! nga tamariki, their whanau, and all the staff involved all had the best time exploring our local forest! There is now somewhere our whanau can visit on their weekends, and weeknights. Whanau can talk to their tamariki, about their input into creating the fairy house. Feeling a sense of mana whenua (Belonging) in their wider community.
Children and their families feel a sense of belonging. Ko te whakatipuranga tēnei o te mana ki te whenua, te mana tūrangawaewae, me te mana toi whenua o te tangata links to learning outcomes: Mana whenua (Belonging): Making connections between people, places and things in their world | te waihanga hononga