Future Kids Childcare Enjoying Matariki Festival

Future Kids are fortunate to already have a ‘garden to table’ programme where they teach the children about how to grow, nurture and harvest in accordance with nature, and for this year’s Matariki they are learning to ‘plant by the stars,’ doing a variety of activities around this event. This includes planting, learning about the different Matariki stars, and listening to different Maori myth and legend stories.

Matariki Festival 2019 is upon us and there are a plethora of events coming up to mark in your diary. Matariki is the Māori name given to Pleiades, an internationally recognised star cluster that can be seen all over the world, and the rise of Matariki in the winter skies above Aotearoa signifies the start of the Māori New Year. 

For those living in Hamilton, the Matariki Glow Show is a giant scale puppet show for 2-10 year olds with magical glow-in-the-dark characters from Māori myth and legend. Rich in Te Reo Māori and Māori culture it’s an upbeat show that has the audience buzzing. Show dates are Wednesday 3 July, at the Dorothy Winstone Theatre, Thursday 4 July at the Raye Freedman Arts Centre, and Saturday 6 July at the Waikato Museum in Hamilton.

Matariki is a celebration that is unique to New Zealand and provides an opportunity to come together, to acknowledge who we are, to express love for these islands that we call our home and foster quality relationships between each other and the natural world. It is also a time to look out for the iconic star cluster and watch the fireworks. June or Pipiri is the time to mark Maramataka, ‘the moon turning’, otherwise known as the Māori lunar calendar, so for more information on early childhood education New Plymouth, childcare prices Hamilton and Future Kids please go to https://www.futurekids.co.nz .