Pacific arts and whānau 

Storytelling increases your child’s language development. Repetition helps improve vocabulary and encourages children to become storytellers themselves. Tell stories in whichever language you feel most comfortable in - any language development is good language development. Storytelling is a great way to also encourage your child's mathematical thinking. 

Listening to stories is often combined with physical closeness and quiet time. This helps your child feel safe and secure. 

Tell family stories

All children love to hear stories of family events or stories about their whānau when they were young. Family stories are a great way for young children to begin to learn their whakapapa - who is in their family and where they came from.

Tell old or traditional stories

Telling stories, from your own or another culture, helps explain the world to your child and encourages creative thinking. If it is a story from your own culture, your child is learning important history, as well as cultural rituals and moments of everyday life. 

Listen to stories together

You don’t always have to be the one telling the stories. The PELP Pacific dual language books are a range of books written for younger children in English and Pacific languages. Audio versions of each story are available to listen to.

Encourage your child to make up or retell stories

Their toys make great characters, and you can make simple puppets from paper bags, old socks, or ice block sticks if you want to act it out. Or just enjoy listening to them as they recreate some old favourites or make up new stories of their own.

Use books in creative ways

When you read stories to your children, pause and invite them to share what they can see in the pictures, or what a character may be thinking or feeling. You might leave a blank at the end of a sentence for them to fill in, and talk with them about how the written words in the story relate to the pictures.

Encourage mathematical thinking

Look for mathematical concepts in stories, for example, counting (how many), prediction (how many left now), adjectives (height, width, depth), and sequencing (before and after, today and tomorrow, beginning, middle, and end).

Many cultures create woven objects and Aotearoa has an abundance of materials to use for weaving. Weaving is great for development as children explore what they can see, smell, and feel. When children learn to weave, they are developing fine motor skills that they will also need to use later when writing or drawing. 

Weaving is also an opportunity for children to begin to see mathematical concepts in cultural artefacts. Socially and culturally, they are learning how to work independently or alongside others and learning about the objects and rituals that are important to their family. 

Find woven objects. Once you start looking, woven objects are everywhere, from homes to libraries to shops to museums. Most woven objects are okay for children to handle. Encourage your child to describe what they hold - what does it smell like, feel like, and look like? Is it rough or smooth? Soft or hard? Heavy or light? Big or small? What shape is it? 

Rather than being purely decorative, woven objects are likely to have a function. See if your child can guess what an object might be used for. Get them to make a connection to a time in their life when they have seen woven objects, like fine mats at funerals or weddings and baskets when collecting shellfish or hanging out washing. 

Many plants in Aotearoa can be woven, or you can use household materials like paper or old plastic bags, like bread bags. If using natural materials, children can help prepare the leaves. Talk to them about ways to gather and prepare materials that are special to your culture. 

Let children watch someone weave for a while so that they see the rhythm and repetition of it. Choose larger things for small fingers to weave in, like feathers or large leaves. Most children are going to need to try weaving a few times before they really master it, so encourage them to stick with it and start with something very simple. 

Talk about mathematical concepts with children such as over, under, through, across, and counting the weaving pattern. 

When gathering weaving materials, demonstrate measurement by using your body. For example, it needs to be as wide as two hands or make it as long as six footsteps. 

Exploring symbols and patterns helps children to develop early mathematical thinking. 

Various symbols are seen in contemporary and traditional Pacific art and can represent parts of the natural world, and important people or places. 

Symbols are seen on flags and coats of arms, as well as on tapa cloth like siapo (Samoa), masi (Fiji), hiapo (Niue) and ngatu (Tonga) and stitched items like tivaevae. Patterns are seen in tatau and on fabrics and carvings. 

Patterns

Practise simple repeating patterns with easily found materials like stones, sticks, leaves, or feathers. The pattern could be based on shape, colour, or size. 

Look for patterns in everyday life, in the natural world, and in objects around the home. This could be on fabric like shirts, i’e lavalava, te towels or bedding. 

Make an ‘ei katu or ula, threading flowers onto string or thin wire in repeating patterns. 

Symbols

Exploring symbols is an opportunity for children to learn about what is important to a culture. Each Pacific Island has its own national flower and bird, and these are often depicted in art, featured in stories, and found on everyday objects, like money, flags, or tapa. Children can listen to stories about the importance of these symbols and find them in picture books or family photographs. 

Some symbols have a special meaning, and some are representative. Different symbols are used in Tapa cloth and tatau and many of these symbols represent the natural world. Tattoo symbols are found right across the Pacific, and their simple shapes and lines make them easy to draw. Try a small whiteboard and pen, cotton buds and black paint, or a stamp made out of sponges. If any of your family have Pacific tatau, they may be able to show them and tell the story of why and how they were chosen. 

Each Pacific island has a distinctive music and dance style. Songs are sung for work, worship, and enjoyment. Many songs have actions that connect children to Pacific languages and movements. Wellbeing is enhanced when children are able to respond to rhythms and sounds that they recognise and can connect to. 

Sing simple songs that you know from your own childhood. Infants will respond as they hear your voice and a familiar tune. 

Anything can be a drum, and young children can make their own rhythms, or play along to pre-recorded music. 

If you feel nervous about dancing, watch some YouTube clips with your child and learn the dance together. 

Just listening to music fires up a young brain. Have music on at home or in the car. Children can dress up and move in their own way. 

Actions are great for teaching repetitive motor skills that help with muscle and brain development and help to tell a story. 

The beat and rhythm of music and the ways children move their bodies as they dance are all part of early mathematical learning. Talk with children about the sequence and patterns of sāsā and siva.