Going plastic free for July made us reflect on how we could eliminate our single use plastic. We were inspired by one of our whānau to make wax wraps with our tamariki for wrapping their daily baking of buns.

Once again it’s been a busy and exciting time as we celebrate Puanga / Matariki here at Manu. The highlight for us is to celebrate the Māori New Year with a whānau day, this is when we share the kai we have grown, harvested and prepared. This year that included feijoa chutney, guava jelly, mandarin cake, coconut and curry pumpkin soup and lemon poppyseed muffins. Together with the kai shared by whānau this is a real feast and the day gives our whānau a relaxed environment to come together and foster relationships within our community.

We are grateful for the contributions whānau have made to the food bank as we reflect on the wider community.

Sustainability is an integral part of our practice and this has been woven through our learning from using wallpaper, lampshades, and tin cans in creative ways. We have made whetū/stars and manu tukutuku/kites from bamboo sourced at kindergarten. We decorated the nook as a night sky reflecting the stars of Puanga and Matariki which has been a fun place to be for sharing stories and games. Our bins for compost, paper and rubbish reflect this philosophy and we are using old paper to make recycled paper. Coffee grinds scatted in the garden help prepare the soil for planned future planting. Tamariki have represented their whānau by depicting them in drawings, leading onto screen printing for some and these are displayed for all to enjoy. Another focal point is the world map where the tamariki tīpuna / grandparents origins have been mapped, learning about whakapapa/genealogy. All of these contributing to a greater sense of belonging for all.

In conjunction with learning about Puanga/Matariki we visited the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. Our adventure started by catching the city council bus. On arrival at the gallery we met with Chris Barry the classroom educator. Chris took us on a walk through the Len Lye exhibit to the Puanga/Matariki exhibit. Where we examined a sculpture created purely by crossing of sticks. Our tamariki then used ice block sticks to create stars using the same crossing technique in the sculpture. We moved to examine another sculpture created out of carved wood with Chris drawing our attention to the shapes in the design. This time our tamariki experimented with black painted plastic film and a nail to carve star patterns. These were best looked at by holding up to the lights. We then visited the gallery classroom where using clay everyone created their very own taonga pendant to take back to kindergarten to dry.

What a wonderful morning we had exploring the community, learning more about Puanga and Matariki, examining shapes and sculptures and fostering our creativity.

Visit to the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery

We all came together on Saturday 24 June to celebrate Puanga as a community. We had been very busy preparing Kai to share with our whānau including pumpkin soup, feijoa muffins and lemon star muffins. The children wove small whetū with wool and feathers and drew pictures of their whānau. We shared stories of Puanga/Matariki and represented the night sky in the reading nook. Thank you to all of you that donated food to our local food bank. We combined these celebrations with Manu’s 25 years of Early Childhood education, Manu opened in April 1992.

Children Active at Manu – Click the Image to Open Full Size in a New Tab…

What a great way to end a busy term with Coach Mike’s play ball session down at New Plymouth Old Boys grounds. What fun it was learning to develop ball skills and working together as a team through games led by Coach Mike, Coach Hayden and Coach Dan.

Listening carefully for the word ‘Bottle of Potion’, controlling a ball using feet only, shooting hoops and goals, balancing a bean bag, practicing jumping with feet together, running, driving and catching hoops using skill and coordination.

Ka pai tō mahi Elliot. What did you enjoy most or would like to practice more?

Open Whānau Day – Saturday 24th June, 11am – 1pm

For the remainder of Term 2 we will be celebrating Matariki/Puanga which indicates the change of season in particular winter.

Matariki is the name of the cluster of stars known as the Pleiades, but Puanga is the star that we see from the West Coast.

We are planning various activities to this special celebration that has become known as the Māori New Year. It is recognised as the time of harvest and the sharing of kai.

We would like to invite all whānau (Nana, Grandads, mums, dads, brothers and sisters who do not normally get to see the Kindergarten/Kura to come and experience some of the activities that the Kindergarten children do, and share some kai with us.

The children will be making soup during the week to share with you and we have been making feijoa muffins that have been frozen to bring out on the day.

If you would like to bring some kai to share with others that would be great.

A big thank you to Amelia’s mum, Caroline for helping us celebrate Amelia’s Indian heritage. We learnt that Amelia’s great great grandfather (Jivla Ravji)first came to New Zealand in 1919 and Amelia’s other great grandfather (Unkabhai Kanji Dhanjee) features in a book titled Indian Settlers:The story of a New Zealand South Asian Community by Jacqueline Leckie. We can only imagine how strange New Zealand must have been to them and the kind of adjustments they must have made.

Our celebrations involved traditional dress, music and food. We made daal and raita with the children and later Caroline showed us how to make roti bread. Caroline kindly contributed vegetable samosas, onion bhaji, bread balls filled with saag and gantiya ( a chick pea flour snack). Caroline’s friend Medla helped too and described growing up in England.

This was a great opportunity for the children to experience a culture that many would be unfamiliar with, the music, the tastes and the language to enrich their experiences of different cultures. It expresses to Amelia that the Indian part of her heritage is important to us as well and it is fun to celebrate it.

We endeavour to reflect what is happening in our community within the Kindergarten programme. The children all screen printed their own Womad flags and we had our own Womad at Kindergarten and gave the children the opportunity to listen to music from many different cultures.

In the forest we always practice going up and down the steep banks with a rope.  This helps to develop the children’s strength and helps them to take responsible risks.

When we are nearly back to the tennis courts, at the end of the morning, we always have a ‘go’ on the roly poly hills.

In order for children to be able to sit still (eg. Mat time) they first must learn to move in increasing complex ways and develop their sense of balance.

The damp weather could not dampen the enthusiasm of the children when it came to celebrating 2016. As has been the tradition we visited the YMCA for a Kindy Gym session first and then back to the Kindergarten for a shared lunch with all our whānau. In preparation for our party the children assembled the drift wood tree making sure we started with the largest branches at the bottom.

Christmas 2016