Maia and the Worry Bug and Wishes and Worries will be offered to all four year olds, their families and their Early Childhood Education teachers. We're very excited to share that the funding will also mean that Maia and the Worry Bug will be translated and available in Te Reo Māori.
Early Education Centres, including Playcentre, Kindergartens, In home care organisations etc will be contacted over the next few weeks, by Kirsty, to get numbers and the appropriate contact person. The teaching notes at the back of Wishes and Worries, and He kanehe, he manatunatu will be amended for use with Te Whariki (the New Zealand ECE curriculum)
We will also be producing a short film documenting the ways Canterbury children and their teachers and families have developed and learnt to build their own resilience and support their own and other's mental health over the last 5 years. The film will be shot in and around Christchurch by Kōtuku Creative and Resonate. While the voices will be Cantabrians we believe that the practical advice and experience the participants share will be of value universally. This short film will be released at the beginning of February 2016 and will be available to all mental health agencies, schools, families and everyone via social media, our website and YouTube for free use. We will be inviting people to participate in this over the next few weeks via our Facebook page.
In February, to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the Feb 22, 2011 earthquake the Canterbury Museum is hosting an exhibition of art and writing produced about, and related to, the earthquakes. We were honoured to be included and Jenny Cooper's beautiful original water colour illustrations which are reproduced in the books will be exhibited. the exhibition opens on January 31 2016. The public is invited to attend throughout February. This wouldn't have been possible without the work of The River of Flowers, which again has significant events happening on February 22nd. As part of the exhibition children are invited to craft their own flowers to add to the model river of flowers in the museum, and of course to attend the events with their families on February 22.
That brings us to the research project that Benita Stiles-Smith and Massey University are completing on the efficacy of The Worry Bug Project. This is ongoing and Benita and her team will be inviting participants who have used the resources to meet with her for focus groups to gather further data about the project in the new year.
And last but by no means least we are thrilled to announce a new resource is on the boil, also funded by New Zealand Red Cross. We were contacted by many teachers and parents when the first books came out asking us for something for the children that are 8-12 years old. The NZRC agreed that this was worthwhile work and have funded the writing, production and free distribution of a book for this age group. The book will be targeted at children, their teachers and families in Year 5-8 in Canterbury. It will be available in Te Reo Māori and will have an online version/audio book. We expect this to be available in Term 4 2016.
Another wonderfully busy year for us at Kōtuku Creative and we're very grateful for all the support we have received so far. We're excited about all the year will bring for us. Please be in touch with any queries or suggestions [email protected]