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Matariki at BestStart Papakura
During the month of July, we celebrated Matariki at BestStart Papakura. Tamariki had fun learning about the 9 stars: Matariki, Tupuārangi, Waipuna-ā-Rangi, Waitī, Tupuānuku, Ururangi, Waitā, Pōhutukawa, and Hiwa-i-te-Rangi through a variety of experiences such as waiata, stories, colouring in, painting, Matariki play-dough and talking about Matariki.
We also learned about Puanga which was told by a parent that they celebrate instead of Matariki which was something new to learn and got us doing some research around it. The tamariki loved exploring their senses along with learning about the Matariki stars. They were able to use the clay that they started off by cutting the clay using a star cutter.
We then left the clay to get hard and once it was ready each and everyone got to design their own unique star. There was painting involved and a lot of discussion during this activity around the Matariki stars, their names, and their meanings.
Our lovely cook, Jinny, helped tamariki bake the star cookies. Unfortunately, we had to cancel our well-planned Matariki disco due to staff having COVID in the centre, however, we are looking for our next whanau event in the coming months.