Celebrating Tanabata and making Sushi

On the 7th day of the 7th month Tanabata is celebrated in Japan and around the world. A special Star festival that recognizes the same star cluster that we celebrate for Matariki. Our friend Maya stood up the front at mat time and shared with us her wonderful knowledge on the story of Tanabata and the princess who was separated from her love but rejoins him on the 7th July each year. We watched a video story of this too.

Following Japanese traditions we made a wish to send up to the stars. These are called Tanzaku and are hung on a bamboo tree. It was neat to  hear the children's Tanzaku wishes. 

Cecelia wished for he trees to reach the moon. 

Maya wished to be a Unicorn. 

Scottie wished for lots of hugs from her Daddy.

Claudia wished for pet cat. 

Xavier wished for all of the Pokemon cards.

Aria. L wished to go to Rainbow;s End.

Aria W wished for a little sister.

And we had many many more wishes on our Tanabata tree. 

We also made yummy sushi for lunch and decorated colourful lanterns. 

Happy Tanabata everyone! 

The Matariki Hakari

Today was such a special day at the Centre, we welcomed the Matariki Star cluster that made it's first appearance in the sky this morning. As part of this celebration, children had been invited to bring in a vegetable that they had chosen or grown to contribute towards a delicious vegetable soup. 

First we had to prep the vegetables, we had quite the collection! Onions, carrots, garlic, mushrooms, parsnips, kumara, swede, chinese cabbage! Yum!

We learnt to peel away from our bodies so we keep ourselves safe when peeling our vegetables.

   

It was fantastic having a few of our Mums here to help with the prep. After all, matariki is a time for spending with our whanau.

Aria W spent a long amount of time at the prep table cutting, peeling and shared that both Eden and her help cook at home sometimes.

"I cut it, I cut it!" Ted happily said.

Sky let out many smiles as she peeled the kumara.

As Leo cut the onion she said " I got water eyes." Cecelia's Mum- Vivian told us a sneaky trick, that we could wash the onions first and that helps with the watery eyes!

Leo invited Ava G to the table and asked "What  are you going to do and with what vegetable?"

Claudia found cutting the pumpkin very tricky with the safety knives so we used the grater. "It's sticky !" She said as she rubbed her hands from the pumpkin.

Into the pot it went and Aaria poured in some tomatoes to top it off.

Delicious smells filled the centre as the pot boiled away all morning. Mmmmm. 

Lunch time was upon us and what a feast we had.

The tables were put together and looked rather fancy for our special celebration. We had the special Matariki star tree the children had decorated with stars and lights and little Kiwi even came up for the feast. How aataahua it looked!

There were two options of soup- pureed and chunky. The choice was up to the tamariki. 

It was a thumbs up from Chloe E who downed her soup.

Xavier shared that "it is good to have soup when it's cold."

Eliza gave it the nod.

Aria W turned to Xavier and said "That's nice bread aye."

Ted shared with the group a few times that his Mum had a "Big chicken Soup and I not eat my chicken soup." He did however try our soup, at least a bit of it.

Daniel enjoyed stirring his soup. 

Leo decided that vegetable soup was not for her and we talked about how everyone has different taste buds, "I don't like it, my taste buds are oranges, lollies and nashi pears." but she loved the bread. 

What a wonderful way to celebrate today.

Poi Dancing Fun

Our tamariki enjoyed using the poi as part of a mat time dance with Anu. We learnt a beautiful song - E Ruru Taku Poi and the children learnt to spin their poi's up and down.  It took lots of concentration to spin them and keep them controlled!