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Matariki Whānau Evening
Part of the learning within our Montessori classroom is acknowledging and honouring the bicultural celebrations of Te Au Māori. Our aim is to give our tamariki experiences that will give a deeper meaning and understanding to the cultural events that are so much a part of Aotearoa.
A lot of planning and preparation goes into hosting an event such as Matariki. We encourage our tamariki to be a part of this process, so for those who attended our evening, most of what we did was because of your tamariki input. There is teaching that goes on throughout this preparation time, including the significance of the different stars represented within the Matariki story. Aside from one song that Kaiako suggested, the other waiata was because tamariki asked for them to be a part of our performance.
We do have a number of iwi represented within our tamariki, and it is a joy and delight when we recognise them embracing their culture and wanting to learn the language. One tamaiti, after having hui with her, took her mission very seriously, and her whanau informed us that she was practicing a lot at home to lead our final waiata in our performance. She knew she was going to lead it, with a quieter support from her Kaiako.
The pride as she knew she had succeeded beyond her belief, and indeed, the pride and joy of all our tamariki, is what embracing Te Au Māori really is all about. While our celebration event is over for this year, our encouragement and giving our tamariki opportunities learn about, embrace and take joy in not only Te Au Māori, but every culture and heritage represented within our Montessori classroom will continue.
Tino pau tou mahi tamariki! You did a great job! Ngā mihi nui.