During our celebration of Seaweek in March, the tamariki at Mt Roskill Kindergarten created and crafted sea creatures such as turtles, jellyfish, octopuses, sharks, fish and one tohora nui, a big whale.

The big whale making project was sparked from a conversation between two tamariki about one of them watching a documentary on whales. “The blue whale is the biggest whale in the world,” and “Did you know that some whales have teeth and some don’t have teeth!” “I like the Bowhead whale, that’s my favourite” “No the humpback whale is the best!”

So, after some discussion and brainstorming, the tamariki and kaiako made a plan to construct a blue whale using some donated materials of cardboard tubes, paper and cardboard boxes. Some tamariki requested to make certain parts of the whale, like the skeleton, tail, fins, blow hole and skin.

Over two weeks the whale began to take shape as the tamariki helped to attach the skin with “wrinkles” the tail, fins, blowhole, mouth with baleen and “big eyes” to the skeleton structure.

“I think we used 75 metres of sellotape!” “This is very complicated,” “It’s a real whale, now it can swim in the ocean!” “I love it!” “Is it a boy whale or a girl whale?” “It’s a mummy whale and we should make a baby whale too!” said the tamariki laughing and pointing at the blue whale when it was hoisted into place to hang from the ceiling.

The tamariki are so proud of our blue whale and so are the whānau and kaiako. “It looks like a whale in the museum!” said one of our parents.