Entry Two

Our centre has recently decided that we need to increase the use of Te reo with children and not limit it to story books. One of the ways that the teachers thought they could make children more aware of the language is through Māori songs.

The children enjoy the songs and actions and very soon a lot of them had been noticed humming the songs on their own and even doing the actions. Like most of the other children W (three year old) had also been noticed to be singing and doing the actions on his own but for the last few times I saw that his song and actions were different to what we were doing at our centre. Upon observing closely I found that he was doing the haka, repeating the first line over and over again. Being a shy child W would not reply when I commented that it was really nice to see him doing the haka and asked him where he had learnt it from.

I shared this with the other teachers and some of them said they had also noticed him singing “kamate kamate, kiaora kiaora”.  I asked the teachers if any of them knew the words and actions to the haka but none of them did.  I decided that I will do some research on my own and try to find a CD and if possible learn the actions as required by DOP 1(d) ‘that educators should enhance children’s learning and development through planning the environment in response to children’s interests, abilities and dispositions’ (MOE,1998, p.23).

In the afternoon when W’s mum came to pick him up I shared this observation with her and she informed me that since we had started with the Māori action songs at our centre, W had been doing it at home as well. Because none of the family members were familiar with the songs that we were doing, W’s elder brother usually showed him how to do the haka.

I also shared with her what I was planning for. Although W’s mum had not mentioned it earlier, the next morning she brought in a CD and told us that her elder son has offered to come in after school (3.30pm) and demonstrate the haka actions to the children.

I informed the centre manager about this and she said this would be a learning opportunity for all the children at the centre and the teachers as well.

I am glad because of the centres decision and as required by Te Whāriki that the ‘curriculum should include opportunities to learn and use the Māori language through social interaction’(MOE, 1996, p.43) the children are learning and enjoying Māori waiata. Isenberg and Jalongo (2003) state that music and movement provide a common vehicle for children to know about, understand, appreciate and preserve cultural traditions.

By sharing information with W’s mum we learnt about his interest in haka and they were able to contribute to the children’s as well as the teachers learning. According to Arthur et al (2008) effective partnerships between home and educational settings allows families and educators to exchange information and develop shared understandings of experiences and knowledge networks which can be included in the curriculum.  This incident also supports Vygotsky’s sociocultural and cognitive theory which states that children actively construct knowledge from social interactions, Santrock (2008).