Ngā Hākari - Unit 7

He Reo Tupu, He Reo Ora

Matariki atua ka eke mai i te rangi e roa.

Whāngaia iho ki te mata o te tau roa.

Divine Matariki come forth from the far-off heaven.

Nourish those below with the first fruits of the year.

This is the seventh unit plan from He Reo Tupu, He Reo Ora. It explores Ngā Hākari (Celebrations).

Tikanga

Introduce the following aspects of tikanga Māori to your students:

Time and the seasons are marked by different cycles of nature, such as the reappearance of Matariki to mark the new year and the monthly lunar calendar, which runs from new moon to new moon.
The reappearance of Matariki in the eastern sky before sunrise marks the beginning of the new year.
Matariki occurs at the end of the harvest, at a time when food is plentiful.
Whakawhanaungatanga and manaakitanga are important values at times of celebration. These are often regarded as being more important than the actual event being celebrated.

Reomations

The following reomations support this unit:

Ko te rā whānau a Koro (Koro's birthday)
Taku huritau (My birthday)

Learning intentions and success criteria
Tasks and activities
Assessment opportunities
Related topics, resources, and references
Vocabulary

Achievement objectives

Students will:

2.4 communicate about time, weather, and seasons

3.2 communicate about events and where they take place

3.5 communicate about immediate past activities

4.1 request, offer, accept, and decline things, invitations, and suggestions.

Learning intentions

Possible learning intentions for this unit of work are to:

understand and use some words associated with birthdays
understand and use some words associated with the celebration of Matariki
understand and use some simple phrases associated with birthdays
understand and use birthday greetings
use my knowledge of the numbers from one to ten to express quantities
ask and answer a question about age
understand and use simple expressions associated with eating
understand and use the correct form for passing things
understand and respond appropriately to simple instructions
ask and answer questions about wants and desires
ask and answer questions about location
communicate two choices
use appropriate words when I present or receive a gift
understand and use “me” at the beginning of a sentence to make a suggestion
communicate likes and dislikes
understand and use simple expressions to offer and accept something
understand and use simple expressions to offer to do something
understand and use everyday survival expressions in the classroom
use “ko” to specify a proper noun.

Possible learning intentions for extension are to:

recognise, understand, and use some less common words associated with Matariki
recognise, understand, and use some less common words associated with birthdays
indicate future events
understand and use some synonyms associated with celebrations
understand the concept of compound words
understand that some Māori words express personification
understand and use “ehara”
use transliterations as a second-language strategy when a word is unknown
research the derivation of some words
use the different plural pronouns
retell/rewrite the legend of Matariki, using a combination of English and te reo Māori.

Tasks and activities

The tasks and activities below are at varying levels of difficulty, to give the flexibility to meet the diverse needs of students. They can be done individually, in pairs, or in groups.

Translations

Beside the examples of te reo Māori in the following tasks and activities, English translations are provided to assist you. They are not literal translations, but how to communicate the same thing in English. This support does not mean that you should necessarily say the English. That depends on the task or activity and your students' needs.

Tasks and activities 1 - 5

Flashcards 1

For vocabulary recognition, make a set of flashcards using resource sheet 7.1. You could hold up a picture of a birthday gift, for example, and offer the students two choices, saying:

Maori vocabulary	English translation
He waea pūkoro? He rorohiko?	A cellphone? A computer?

Maori vocabulary	English translation
He waea pūkoro, he rorohiko rānei?	A cellphone or a computer?

Maori vocabulary	English translation
He waea pūkoro tēnei, he rorohiko rānei?	Is this a cellphone or a computer?

Language tip

Notice that “rānei” (“or”) comes after the two choices.

Tip

To make the flashcards, print the resource sheet double sided – on the “short” side. You may wish to laminate, before cutting, for durability.

Flashcards 2

Using the same resource sheet 7.1, make another pack of cards showing the matching words. Get your students to combine the picture flashcards with the word flashcards to play such games as Snap, Fish, and Pairs.

Bingo cards

For a game of classroom bingo to reinforce the vocabulary, use the Bingo cards on resource sheet 7.2.

Multiple choice

Create some multi-choice descriptions to go with pictures of celebrations. Get the students to work out which description best applies to which picture.

With a picture of the constellation Matariki, you could consolidate some number words by, for example, getting the students to choose between:

Maori vocabulary	English translation
E ono ngā whetū i te rangi.	There are six stars in the sky.
E iwa ngā whetū i te rangi.	There are nine stars in the sky.
E whitu ngā whetū i te rangi.	There are seven stars in the sky.
Tekau ngā whetū i te rangi.	There are ten stars in the sky.

You could use one of the illustrations in the He Purapura book Kua Puta a Matariki for this activity. (Note: while the illustrations in Kua Puta a Matariki do show seven stars, most people can only see six in the night sky without the help of a telescope.)

Treasure hunt

Design a treasure hunt for a birthday party using clues in te reo Māori (in the form of commands), for example:

	Maori vocabulary	English translation
Clue 1:	Haere / puta ki waho.	Go outside.
Clue 2:	Haere ki te pouaka-reta. Tangohia tētahi reta.	Go to the letterbox. Take out a letter.
Clue 3:	E oma ki roto ki te kāinga.	Run into the house.
Clue 4:	Titiro ki roto i te pouaka-mātao.	Look inside the fridge.
Clue 5:	Tangohia tētahi inu ārani.	Get a drink of orange.
Clue 6:	Hoki atu ki waho.	Go back outside.
Clue 7:	Tīkina tekau ngā rau.	Get ten leaves.
Clue 8:	Kimihia he putiputi whero.	Look for a red flower.
Clue 9:	Kuhu ki roto.	Go inside.
Clue 10:	Rapua e rua ngā mea pango.	Look for two black things.
Clue 11:	Rapua he mea tino iti / taumaha / ngohengohe / ātaahua.	Look for a very small / heavy / soft / beautiful thing.

Tasks and activities 6 - 10

Strip-story

Turn the Ngā Kete Kōrero story Te Rā o Māmā into a strip story. Get the students to collectively, through negotiation, put the story in a sensible order.

Dialogues can also be made into strip stories. For a variation, you could use a picture of a birthday celebration for a strip-picture task. More information about how to make a strip-story or a strip-picture can be found under the heading "Using tasks and activities"

True-false-make it right

For a true-false-make it right task, show the students a picture of a typical birthday scene and read out some text about it, deliberately making some untrue statements as you go. Get the students to say or write either “kei te tika” (true) or “kei te hē” (false). Can they go a step further and make it right – by telling you what you should have said?

For example, showing the picture on pages 32–33 in First Thousand Words in Māori, you could make statements such as the following, for your students to verify:

Maori vocabulary	English translation
Ko te rā whānau tēnei.	This is the birthday.
E ono ngā poihau.	There are six balloons.
Kei te tū te tāne.	The man is standing.
E whā ngā kānara.	There are four candles.
Kei roto te wahine.	The woman is inside.

Once they are confident, the students could take on the role of describing the birthday scene, communicating some deliberate errors for their peers to notice and correct. You could use the reomation Taku huritau (My birthday), as a stimulus.

Cloze

Design a cloze task where the students have to fill in gaps in the text. Use an appropriate picture as a stimulus and support. More information about cloze tasks can be found under the heading "Using tasks and activities"

If you use the language in the reomation Ko te rā whānau a Koro (Koro’s birthday), you could create a cloze like the following (with the words in brackets missing):

Maori vocabulary	English translation
Ko te rā (whānau) tēnei a (Koro).	This is Koro’s birthday.
Kei hea te uhi (mā)?	Where is the white tablecloth?
Kei (roto) i te (hautō).	In the drawer.
Tikina ngā (pereti).	Fetch the plates.
Homai (ngā) pune.	Pass the spoons.
Kei (hea) ngā kānara?	Where are the candles?
Hari (huritau), Koro.	Happy birthday, Koro.

Same-different

For a same-different task that students can work on in pairs, use the sets of numbered grids (Set A and Set E) showing celebration-related pictures in resource sheet 7.3. Notice how some of the pictures are the same across both grids, but some are different. Give one student Set A and the other Set E. Ask the students to communicate with each other, box by box, to work out which boxes are identical (“he rite”) and which are different (“he rerekē”).

To make this task more challenging, have pictures of the same items in the boxes in Set A and Set E but draw some of them with different characteristics; for example, a square cake with five candles and a circular cake with six candles, so that the students not only have to name the item (“keke”) but also have to communicate about some of the details.

You could use attribute blocks to first introduce and then consolidate the words for long, square, round, and the colours. Or use books such as He Kaui mā Pēpi, He Momo Pōro, He Aha Rā?, Ka Kitea e Au ..., and Ngā Tohu o te Huarahi, which introduce these concepts and terms. They are available in big book format.

Dycomm

For a group or pair dycomm task, where the students have different but essential bits of information they need to combine, give one student some information from a birthday invitation (the start time, the day of the week, and the venue) and the other student different information (the name of the birthday girl or boy, the finish time, and the month) – see resource sheet 7.4. Get them to ask each other questions and give each other answers in te reo Māori to combine their information in order to create the complete invitation.

Alternatively, you could give one of the students some information about the first three days of a local community Matariki celebration and the other student some information about the programme for the remaining four days. Can they combine their information and use their Māori to fill in the respective information gaps in order to get the whole picture (the week’s programme for the celebration)?

Even more difficult would be the two-way negotiation needed to decide on the seating arrangements for a celebratory hākari (feast), if you give each student half the guest list and pieces of information about, for example:
– why certain guests may want to sit next to each other
– who has a partner
– who speaks Māori
– which guests are elders
– which guests are young people.

Dycomms (information gap tasks) do not need to be done in person. They could be done by email, texting, or Skype. The main thing is that your students negotiate meaning with each other. More information about dycomm tasks can be found under the heading "Using tasks and activities"

Tasks and activities 11 - 15

Text innovation

You can use text innovation to help your students manipulate the language in a task where they still have the security of predictable sentence patterns from the original piece of text. For example, for a text innovation task, try using the He Purapura story E Haere Ana ngā Kararehe ki Hea?, which is about some animals going to a birthday party. Once the students have modified the text, get them to work together to create a dramatisation of their new version of the story.

Role play

With your students, use scripted or semi-scripted dialogues and have them role-play some typical celebration scenes. For example, you could use the language in the reomation Ko te rā whānau a Koro (Koro’s birthday) for this task.

Dictocomp

For a dictocomp task, read a story about a Matariki celebration (twice) at normal speed. During the first reading, just get the students to listen. During the second reading, pause between the sentences so that students can jot down some rough notes in te reo Māori or English (or both) about the key elements in the story. Then get them to work in small groups and use their notes to capture the essence of the story. In a dictocomp task such as this, you could focus on a particular sentence pattern to reinforce its construction, for example, the use of the past tense indicator “i” as in:

Maori vocabulary	English translation
I haere tātou ki te hōro.	We went to the hall.

Listen-and-draw

For a listen-and-draw task, give the students some simple instructions about items to draw onto a picture of an empty table, to create a picture of a celebration feast. For example, you might say:

Maori vocabulary	English translation
Tuhia he ...	Draw a ...
Kei runga i te tēpu he / ngā ...	On the table is a/are some ...
E whā ngā ...	There are four ...
E rua ngā ...	There are two ...
Kotahi te ...	There is one ...
He ... kei roto i te ...	There is a/are some ... in the ...

Information transfer

Facilitate an information transfer task using the reader Te Rā o Māmā, with or without showing the pictures. Can the students suggest some text to go with the pictures or, conversely, can they draw pictures to go with the text if you show it to them without the illustrations?

See Materials that come with this resource to download:

Ngā Hākari Worksheet 7.1 (.pdf)
Ngā Hākari Worksheet 7.2 (.pdf)
Ngā Hākari Worksheet 7.3 (.pdf)
Ngā Hākari Worksheet 7.4 (.pdf)

Assessment opportunities

To improve student learning in te reo Māori, assessment is best seen as an ongoing process that arises out of the relationship between teaching and learning – where the gathering and analysis of evidence, much of it of the moment, provides useful information on your students’ acquisition of te reo Māori. Through the gathering of such evidence, you will gain insights that will shape your practice, and your students will gain insights that will shape their learning.

In the curriculum guidelines, Te Aho Arataki, there are suggestions for possible learning and assessment activities for curriculum levels 1–2 and curriculum levels 3–4. In addition, there is helpful material collected online in Te Whakaipurangi Rauemi. This collection elaborates on some of the communicative tasks outlined in Tasks and activities, including cloze tasks, dycomm tasks, information transfer tasks, multi-choice tasks, strip stories, same-different tasks, dictocomps, listen-and-draw tasks, true-false-make it right tasks, and 4–3–2 tasks.

Ways to monitor progress, both informally and informally:

Observe the students as they work on different communicative tasks and activities, individually, in pairs, or in groups, and assess their performance. Are they spontaneously using te reo Māori in real-life contexts? Are they using the correct adjectives to describe things? Are they using the indefinite article “he” at the beginning of descriptive phrases and sentences? Do they have correct intonation and pronunciation when they are communicating about celebrations? What degree of fluency do they have? Do they have the necessary vocabulary to communicate meaningfully about celebrations? Is the language that they are using accurate? Can they ask others about their age, birthday, and birthplace? Can they act on your instructions? Can they work with classmates to negotiate a communicative task? Can they convey a negative, for example, about their dislikes? Do they initiate kōrero in te reo Māori?
Factor in to your Māori language programme formal assessment opportunities so that the students’ performance is measured by their doing tasks that are framed in authentic language learning contexts, for example, celebrating events.

Using tasks to assess learning

You and your students could use any of the communicative language tasks described in the Tasks and activities section, to assess learning. For example, the students could:

rewrite a story such as the one in the Ngā Kete Kōrero book Te Rā o Māmā (text innovation)
participate with a partner in a same-different task, where each student in a pair has a picture of a celebration with similar, but not identical, elements and they use te reo Māori to work out the differences
engage in an information transfer task where the students have to, for example, transpose a visual representation of a celebration into written text, or vice versa
complete a cloze task by filling in the missing words in a description of a celebration (the aim being to consolidate specific language structures and increase accuracy)
listen to a dictocomp, where you read a passage about a celebration (twice) and the students take notes in te reo Māori or English (or both) to help them reproduce the main ideas (orally or in writing)
role-play a celebration using a script
participate in a true-false-make it right task where they listen carefully and then state whether your statements about, for example, a picture of the night sky are true (“kei te tika”) or false (“kei te hē” or “kāore i te tika”); for example, you might make a statement about Matariki such as:

Maori vocabulary	English translation
E whitu ngā whetū.	(There are) seven stars.

and ask the students to correct any erroneous statements you make.

In addition, students could:

participate in a 4–3–2 task where you give the students four, then three, and then two minutes (or other appropriate amounts of time) to talk about a picture of a birthday party (There are pictures of birthday parties in Everyday Words in Māori, First Hundred Words in Māori, and First Thousand Words in Māori.)
use descriptive terms to describe small birthday gifts in a pēke whāwhā (feely bag), saying such things as:

Maori vocabulary	English translation
he mea ngohengohe	a soft thing
he mea porowhita	a round thing
he mea roa	a long thing
he mea iti	a small thing
he mea tapawhā	a square thing

Language tip

Note that in te reo Māori, adjectives follow nouns.

Resources and references

Waiata

“Te Rā Whānau ki a Koe”: http://www.folksong.org.nz/kids_waiata/

“Ngā Rā o te Wiki” (in Hei Waiata, Hei Whakakoakoa – Waiata to Support Teaching and Learning of te Reo Māori in English-medium Schools: Years 1–8)

Stories

Duncan, Kewana (2004). Hari Huritau ki a Koe. Wellington: Huia Publishers. [This Ngā Kete Kōrero book is about a birthday.]

Gibbison, Sue (2005). “Celebrating Matariki” in School Journal Part 2 Number 2, pages 12–17. [This describes the Ngāpuhi celebration of Matariki.]

Gibbison, Sue (2006). “Making Manu Taratahi” in School Journal Part 4 Number 2. [This is about making kites at Kerikeri High School.]

Green, Fiona (2006). I te Rangi. Wellington: Learning Media. [This He Purapura book is about the sky, including the constellation Matariki.]

Kaa, Oho (2006). Kua Puta a Matariki. Wellington: Learning Media. [This He Purapura story is about Matariki.]

Pakinga, Lila (2000). E Haere ana ngā Kararehe ki Hea? Wellington: Learning Media. [This book in the He Purapura series, about some animals going to a birthday party, is in a set of ten big books published with teachers’ notes.]

Rau, Cath (2002). I te Pō. Ngaruawahia: Kia Ata Mai Publications. [This Ngā Kete Kōrero book features the night sky.]

Rau, Cath (2002). Te Kōanga. Ngaruawahia: Kia Ata Mai Publications. [This Ngā Kete Kōrero book is about spring.]

Rau, Cath (2002). Te Makariri. Ngaruawahia: Kia Ata Mai Publications. [This Ngā Kete Kōrero book is about winter.]

Rau, Cath (2002). Te Ngāhuru. Ngaruawahia: Kia Ata Mai Publications. [This Ngā Kete Kōrero book is about autumn.]

Rau, Cath (2002). Te Raumati. Ngaruawahia: Kia Ata Mai Publications. [This Ngā Kete Kōrero book is about summer.]

Rolleston-Cummins, Toni (2008). Te Huihui o Matariki. Wellington: Huia Publishers.

Rolleston-Cummins, Toni (2008). The Seven Stars of Matariki. Wellington: Huia Publishers.

Taute, Hera (2000). Te Rā o Māmā. Wellington: Huia Publishers. [This Ngā Kete Kōrero book is about a Mother’s Day surprise.]

Te Awa, Manu (2009). He Aha Rā? Wellington: Learning Media. [This Pīpī book introduces some shapes and colours – also available as a big book.]

Te Awa, Manu (2009). He Kaui mā Pēpi. Wellington: Learning Media. [This Pīpī book introduces some shapes and colours – also available as a big book.]

Te Awa, Manu (2009). He Momo Pōro. Wellington: Learning Media. [This Pīpī book series introduces some shapes – also available as a big book.]

Te Awa, Manu (2009). Ka Kitea e Au ... Wellington: Learning Media. [This Pīpī book explores some shapes – also available as a big book.]

Te Awa, Manu (2009). Ngā Tohu o te Huarahi. Wellington: Learning Media. [This Pīpī book explores some shapes – also available as a big book.]

Waiariki, Kerehi (1999). Hari Koa Ana Taku Ngākau. Wellington: Huia Publishers.

Wairama, Moira (2003). “Matariki” in School Journal Part 2 Number 2. [This looks at the science involved in Matariki.]

Wairama, Moira (2003). “Tāne me te Whānau Mārama” in School Journal Part 2 Number 2. [This is a play depicting the myth that explains the Māori concept of Matariki.]

Wairama, Moira and Alchin, Rupert (2003). “Matariki Returns” in Connected 3, pages 8–11. [This article is about the Matariki star cluster, the celebration of Matariki, and other celebrations associated with celestial bodies.]

Useful websites

You and your students could further explore Matariki and the topic of birthdays through some of the following websites:

Te Papa Tongarewa, Museum of New Zealand

Te Taura Whiri i te reo Māori

My future party [In this interactive website, students learning te reo Māori at curriculum levels 1 and 2 are supported as they plan a birthday party in the far future using te reo Māori, English, or New Zealand Sign Language.]

For other material about birthdays, go to: http://tereomaori.tki.org.nz/Teacher-tools/Te-reo-Maori-lesson-plans/Curriculum-level-1/Taku-ra-whanau-My-birthday

References

Amery, H. (2007). First Hundred Words in Māori. Wellington: Huia Publishers. [See pages 18–19 for a birthday party.]

Amery, H. (2006). First Thousand Words in Māori. Wellington: Huia Publishers. [See pages 32–33 for a birthday party and page 47 for some other celebrations.]

Barlow, Cleve (2001). Tikanga Whakaaro: Key Concepts in Māori Culture. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Litchfield, Jo (2009). Everyday Words in Māori. Wellington: Huia Publishers. [See pages 28–29 for a birthday party.]

Mataira, K. (1997). A Modern Māori Picture Dictionary He Papakupu Whakaahua mō te Reo Māori o Nāianei. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Mead, Hirini Moko and Grove, Neil (2003). Ngā Pēpeha a ngā Tīpuna. Wellington: Victoria University Press.

Ministry of Education (2008). Hei Waiata, Hei Whakakoakoa – Waiata to Support Teaching and Learning of te Reo Māori in English-medium Schools: Years 1–8. Wellington: Learning Media. [Book and CD]

Orbell, M. (2007). The Concise Encyclopedia ofMāori Myth and Legend. Christchurch: University of Canterbury Press.

Tauroa, Hiwi and Pat (1990). Māori Phrasebook and Dictionary. Auckland: Collins.

Vocabulary

Maori vocabulary	English translation
kāri rā whānau	birthday card
katoa	all
kei hea?	where?
koutou	you (three or more)
mātou	we (three or more, including the speaker but excluding the listener/s)
ngā	the (plural)
pīrangi	to want
rā	day, sun
rātou	they, them (three or more)
tātou	we (three or more, including the speaker and the listeners)
tau	year
tāua	we (two – you and I)
te	the (singular)