Maori Language week award

Back row left to right – Sarah, Jennifer, Katie, Leonie, Toni and Vidya. Front row left to right – Jo Henry centre manager, Hylda and Erina.

Kids to Five on Somerset in Hamilton, submitted an entry into Maori Language week for 2008.

The idea of Maori language week this year was to bring the language to the forefront and have it spoken in the home.

As a centre the teachers took this challenge on board and set about to develop ideas that would enhance their te reo and ensure it was being spoken at home through the tamariki that they teach.

Each room had a different idea for the week: the toddler room made their own marae with waiata and pukapuka being read, preschool set up a room and re-enacted a Maori legend for the week along with flax weaving and the nursery sung waiata and the teachers put mokos on their tamariki’s face and own their own and made a display wall for the whanau to enjoy.

To incorporate the community into the centre we invited Matua Henry to teach the children the haka and do a waiata with the tamariki. The tamariki in turn invited Matua Henry to have kai with them in the whare kai.

Erina brought in her cloak for the children to see, and then Erina and Leonie taught the tamariki the poi and the raku stick.

To finish this week off we gave the whanau ketes with the phrases we were incorporating for the week and a waiata book for them to continue practicing at home.

We made all the beautiful pictures and the learning stories into a pukapuka and submitted it to Nga tohu Wiki.

We received an e-mail to let us know that we were finalists in the preschool section, and were invited to attend the awards evening in Wellington on the 12th September, 2008.

We made our way to Wellington to attend this magnificent event and wait with the two other finalists to see who had won – the winner was announced and it was Kids to Five on Somerset.

The feeling is hard to explain as to how we felt to win this prestigious event. It has shown the teachers and the whanau that we are endeavoring to bring two cultures together within one early childhood setting.

The teachers and our whanau within the centre are still laughing that an aussie lead the team to win this major event.