Matariki and the wonderful spirit of Giving!

"Everything can be great, because everybody can serve."

- Martin Luther King Jr 

The wonderful thing about the naturalised environment and enviro focus at Tawa Montessori Preschool and Little Earth is that it is never finished! Even having received a silver and a green-gold EnviroSchool award, which some people refer to as ‘the top’, we are by no means standing still. We are still aiming to be a more sustainable community and foster a sustainable mind set in our tamariki and families. It is this positive attitude to growth and change that really sets our preschools apart as a truly environmentally friendly early childhood centre.

While we have been teaching the children at our preschools to be stewards and caretaker of the Earth and its inhabitants for many years, we are also teaching them to be of service to the community. The Montessori philosophy encourages a vision of peaceful communities and service to others. It was Maria Montessori’s vision that a peaceful world, created by children, would make the world a better place.

At our preschools we foster this with the children through learning the joy of giving of themselves, and develop compassion through practical life volunteer experiences. We regularly visit the elderly at the local club, help out with community work like tree planting and we collect and donate gifts to local charities.

This year we are celebrating Matariki in the spirit of community service and giving. Matariki is the Maori name for the group of stars also known as the Pleiades star cluster or The Seven Sisters. In New Zealand the rise of Matariki in the sky and the sighting of the next new moon is celebrated as Maori New Year. Matariki lies within the Taurus constellation and rises only once a year in the eastern sky around the shortest days of the year. Traditionally, The Matariki star constellation marked a time for starting all things new. Today Matariki means celebrating the unique place in which we live and giving respect to the land we live on. It is celebrated as a time to share with each other, for family and friends to come together and share in the gifts that the land and sea have provided for them. This year Matariki is on June 21, New Zealand’s winter solstice. Matariki celebrates the diversity of life. At both our preschools we celebrate and acknowledge what we have and what we have to give, a celebration of spirit and people.

At Tawa Montessori Preschool we organised a “bring and buy”, with children and families bringing home made or surplus produce. These products were for sale for a koha (a small monetary donation). The koha will be donated to the breakfast club at one of the local schools.

At Little Earth we set up a “community service sack”. This sack is passed from family to family. The family will fill up the sack with donated goods and deliver it with their child to a local charity. The empty sack will then be passed on to the next family who in their turn will fill up the sack with donations and deliver.

 “The needs of mankind are universal. Our means of meeting them create the richness and diversity of the planet. The Montessori child should come to relish the texture of that diversity”. 

- Maria Montessori

Our preschool community really is a community of caring and joyful learners! How did you celebrate Matariki this year?

- Anja