Exploring Pūrākau: Māori legends...

 

On a quest to further support and grow children's oral language and literacy learning we have been exploring pūrākau with the tamariki at Bream Bay Kindergarten.

"Pūrākau, or storytelling, is an ancient form not just of transmitting ideas but of creating shared meaning and thus identity" (Stansfield, 2020).

To help jumpstart our journey into exploring pūrākau we started with reading the beautiful pukapuka ‘In the Beginning’ by Peter Gossage. Accompanying this book the teachers made story stones of the atua featuring in the story. The tamariki absolutely loved reading about the atua, their guardianship and using the story stones to read and play with.

“Children experience an environment where they experience the stories and symbols of their own and other cultures. Over time and with guidance and encouragement, children become increasingly capable of enjoying hearing stories and retelling and creating them” 

(Te Whāriki, 2017).

The interest in the story stones had been huge and the tamariki wanted to start drawing the atua themselves, expressing their ideas and thoughts using numerous mediums. They put pens and paint to paper… 

“As well as being a powerful form of communication and cultural expression, the arts has the potential to contribute to learning in many other ways” 
(Te Whāriki Online).

We are continuing with our exploration into pūrākau and after reading the pukapuka ‘In the Beginning’, the tamariki made props of the atua featuring in the book. The tamariki helped trace, paint and stabilize the child sized atua before they were ready to be used.

During the process to create the atua there was a lot of discussions around the differences, what they do, what people thought of them and other theories about them.

Once the atua was cut out and ready to go, we set them up outside for the children to explore. They were so excited to use them as props, it was a great opportunity for role playing and continual communication between peers. 

“Children experience an environment where they discover different ways to be creative and expressive.  Over time and with guidance and                          encouragement, children become increasingly capable of expressing their feelings and ideas using a wide range of materials and modes”        
(Te Whāriki, 2017).

 

The pukapuka, ‘Nga Taonga o Tatou Atua Wahine – The Treasures of our Female Gods’, Author: Karlene Nesbit, Illustrator: Miriama Rose Kaimarama was then discovered by the tamariki. This lead into another pukapuka to explore and learn from.

Another beautiful pukapuka about atua but this time about wahine. What is especially fantastic about this book is that the author Karlene is the head teacher of Selwyn Kindergarten in Dargaville.

The tamariki have also immensely enjoyed reading this book. The tamariki used their wonderful artist skills to create story sticks so that everyone can enjoy their beautiful mahi.

Papatūānuku is the earth mother, with Ranginui they had many sons. Some of the sons wanted there to be light so push them apart.

Hineahuone is the first atua wahine. She was created out of clay by Tāne Mahuta and was able to start to give life to humans.

Hine-rauwhārangi makes us grow strong and healthy.

Hine-moana looks after the sea creatures. She calms the stormy waters.

Hine Raumati delivers warmth and sunshine. She is the wife of                  Tama-nui-te-rā.

Hine-teuira is the lightening wahine.

Hine-takurua is the atua wahine of winter and helps grow sea creatures.

Hine-nui-te-pō is the atua wahine of darkness. She helps guide us to find out tupuna.

“Children experience an environment where they experience the stories and symbols of their own and other cultures. Over time and with guidance and encouragement, children become  increasingly capable of recognising print symbols and concepts and using them with enjoyment, meaning and purpose.”

-Te Whāriki, 2017

 We were then gifted the beautiful pukapuka 'Atua', by Gavin Bishop from Julia as a thanks for being a student teacher at kindergarten (who is now a permanent teacher at BBK).

What an stunning book with beautiful illustrations and lots of knowledge to store in our kete.

Thank you Julia!

As the work around atua continued and the interest soared, there was a noticeable difference in conversations with and between children. The children's ideas and thoughts around atua have extended into everyday play, observations and conversations, becoming engrained into the culture at kindergarten.

Arohanui, Lauren.

Reunion Play Date 2022

 We had the immense pleasure of catching up with old kindergarten friends at our 'Reunion Play Date'.

The heart could hardly take it, there were so many friends to reconnect with, it was such a feel good overload! 

When we originally posted our invite we thought maybe 10 or 15 people would RSVP...we quickly realized this was not the case as our post went viral...(hmm slight exaggeration she said laughing) however, we did have to change the time in order for us to accommodate friends who had expressed an interest in attending.  We were feeling loved and excited to catch up with everyone.

Planning began and of course there would be food!

The concept of Manakitangi is important to us at Bream Bay Kindergarten and we work hard to action qualities such as generosity, kindness, respect and care.  The provision of kai has always played a central role in us expressing to people how much we care and appreciate them and is such a quintessential kiwi way of showing hospitality, care and unity. 

  

To have children return to this space and display such confidence and respect as they eloquently blessed the kai and those present was amazing.  The two year old watching the older tamariki in this photograph so precious.

It is fair to say, our share table was a huge success. 

Knowing that tamariki would be interested in seeing if kindergarten was as they remembered, we set up a few play stations for them to revisit their experience.  

The usual suspects such as the climbing tree and the swings still proved popular.

As children revisited the environment we heard comments to warm the heart "kindergarten was the best time ever...I miss kindy...hey the tree is still here...I used to love doing painting and drawing...I remember..."

Funny...the monkey bars seemed so much taller way back when!

It was such a blast watching children revisit favourite play activities, rediscovering the joy that being with friends in playful pursuit offers.

Teachers noticed that children were still drawn to the same things!

Imaginative play, all about dragons.

...dressing the babies

...puzzles always a hit

  

  

Winnie the Pooh said "I knew when I met you an adventure was going to happen" and it's true, our adventures together at kindergarten provided a wealth of happy memories and we had so many fun things to reminisce and talk about.  

Our absolute favourite thing about this event was seeing the progress and growth of tamariki shining, confident, capable, happy and thriving. 

 As kindergarten teachers our time with our youngest friends is sometimes fleeting as they progress to school, and the knowledge that inevitably memories of early childhood fade.  

As teachers we aspire to make a positive and lasting impact in the lives of children and families...this day was magical for us as we saw, felt and heard children's accounts of a well loved and joyous kindergarten experience. 

 Be still our beating hearts, what more could we ask for! 

To our good friends; past and present tamariki and whanau of Bream Bay Kindergarten we say thank you.  You've made and continue to make it easy to come to work, a live worth living.

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to come along and spend time with us, you truly made our hearts glow! 

Until next time, arohanui.

 Your good friends at

 Bream Bay Kindergarten