Learning our Mihi

Learning and Creating our Visual Mihi

As you know we have been working on creating our Mihi.  Each morning, at the start of the day we practise introducing ourselves and then we have been building onto our Mihi by introducing our family members, starting with Mum and Dad.  We have also been drawing visual versions of our Mihi during discovery time. 

We have chosen to start to learn these now because part of Matariki is about learning about your whakapapa and making connections to our ancestors.  So in this time we are connecting with our families and acknowledging them through our Te Reo learning. 

Here we are adding in our Mums and Dads.  We will be adding our grandparents soon. 

We have started to share our Mihi at Rinsing 5s as a way to welcome newcomers into the class.  This is something we are working on embedding, so that all children know their Mihi and can confidently introduce themselves when we have visitors.  

We have been talking about how we are kaitiaki of Te Reo and Tikanga and how it is our job to make sure the culture and language is preserved.  

This week we had 3 students use their bravery and leadership to stand up and say their Mihi (the parts we have learned so far) in front of the class and the Rising 5s.  They spoke with confidence, clarity and pride.  This sense of positive accomplishment was very inspiring for others and we promptly had many more volunteers for next week! We are so impressed with the enthusiasm towards our Te Reo learning and the manaaki that the class is showing.  

Stay tuned as we finish learning our Mihi and connect to some beautiful Matariki art!