Fruit Kebabs

Assessment / Aromatawai 

Learning intentions and success criteria have been included in these teachers’ notes (see rubrics below) to help determine student progress. 

The format of the rubrics is similar to He Reo Tupu, He Reo Ora, allowing for student self-assessment, as well as assessment by: 

• other students (tuākana and tēina) 
• teachers 
• whānau (as a way of engaging families and promoting a partnership between home and school). 

Proverb / Whakataukī

Ka ngaro te kai, e mimiti tā tūwaewae.

The Food is all gone, eaten by the visitors. 

Cultural knowledge / Tikanga

The physical dimension of hauora (Māori health and well-being) is te taha tinana. But the physical side needs to be balanced with te taha hinengaro (mental health) and te taha wairua (spiritual health). All three dimensions, underpinned with whānau, must be intact to achieve balance.

Food contributes to te taha tinana and plays a significant part in demonstrating manaakitanga (hospitality).

The people who work behind the scenes to prepare the kai are highly regarded. They are the ringawera (kitchen workers, which literally means ‘hot hands’). If they don’t do their job well, it reflects badly on the hosts and is a slight on the guests.

The saying Ka pai ki muri, ka pai ki mua means that if all runs smoothly behind the scenes, all will be well at the front. This demonstrates the importance of working together and contributing, much like the idiom ‘many hands make light work’.

Māori are very generous when catering. They believe that it’s better to have too much kai than not enough – this would be an insult to their manuhiri. The best available kai goes to the manuhiri, and the rest is distributed among the ringawera.

Pre-reading / I mua atu

Before reading the story, talk with students to discover: 

• their previous experiences in relation to the picture on the front cover, as well as their knowledge of how people get their names 
• prior knowledge of relevant vocabulary, language structures, and Māori concepts. 

Flashcards / Whakaahua 

You could create flashcards to show images of the following content words:

kepapa – kebab(s) 

kerepe – grape(s) 

āporo – apple(s) 

panana – banana(s) 

ārani – orange(s) 

huarākau – fruit 

huakiwi – kiwifruit 

rare kōpungapunga – marshmallow(s) 

Other words / Ētahi Atu Kupu 

Other words in the text include: 

(tino) reka – (very) delicious 

tohutohu – instructions 

anei – here is/are 

Grammar / Wetereo 

This story includes the following language structures: 

• imperative endings -a, -hia, -tia, as in horoia (wash), werohia (pierce), tīhoretia (peel) 
• conjunction me to join two things (ngā panana me ngā ārani/the bananas and the oranges) 
• compound word huarākau (literally ‘fruit from trees’) 
• ordinal numbers tuatahi to tuawhā (first to fourth) 
• transliterations, for example, āporo (apple), panana (banana) 
• placement of adjectives after nouns, for example, rare kōpungapunga (literally ‘lollies spongy’) 
• definite article ngā (the) 
• particle kia (be/let it be) 
• Mā wai e …? (Who will …?) 

Second language tasks/activities

Once students are familiar with the text, you can facilitate some of the second language tasks/ activities below, working to your students’ strengths and interests. The aim is to extend their proficiency and use of te reo in meaningful contexts.

Once students are familiar with the text, you can facilitate some of the second language tasks/activities below, working to your students’ strengths and interests. The aim is to extend their proficiency and use of te reo in meaningful contexts.

Ka pai tēnā. Nō reira, kia kaha.

For general information on common task types, see He Reo Tupu, He Reo Ora. Choose ‘Using tasks and activities’.

He Reo Tupu, He Reo Ora

Vocabulary-building

Once the students have consolidated the words associated with fruit kebabs, they can learn other food-related words by:

• using the food flashcards in He Reo Tupu, He Reo Ora (Resource sheet 3.1)
• using the Bingo cards in He Reo Tupu, He Reo Ora (Resource sheet 3.2)
• researching other Māori words needed for making different types of kebabs.

‘Snap’ and ‘Pairs’

Make sets of palm-sized flashcards featuring words from the story, so each child has eight picture flashcards and eight word flashcards. Students then play the card games ‘Snap’ and ‘Pairs’, looking for matching pairs of pictures and words.

Information transfer

Give students the written text only, and have them create appropriate illustrations for each page, so that anyone viewing the pictures would know how to make kebabs without written instructions.

Sequencing

Students reorder strips of the text, to correspond with the ordinals tuatahi to tuawhā (first to fourth).

You can extend this task to include oral or written modes, where you ask each child to memorise a strip, then work together in groups of four to reconstruct the text by saying or writing the strips in the correct order.

Another way to extend this task is to cut each strip in half and provide students with the first half of each sentence only, so they have to complete each sentence before reconstructing the text. 

 Alternatively, you could make the task easier by providing picture clues for children to match to selected pieces of text. 

Listen and draw 

Students work in pairs. Each one has a grid with six numbered boxes. They tell their partner what food item to draw in which box.There is a similar task in He Reo Tupu, He Reo Ora ( Resource 3.11 ) and an associated video showing students doing this task. 

Some useful language structures include: 

• He aha kei roto i te pouaka tuatoru? What’s in the third box? 
• He rare (kei roto i te pouaka tuatoru). A lolly (is in the third box). 
• Tuhia he huarākau kei roto i te pouaka tuaono. Draw some fruit in the sixth box. 

Text innovation

Students adapt the fruit kebab instructions to make other types of kebabs such as meat, vegetable, or fish. They could include Māori words in English instructions or give Māori instructions with picture clues to enhance the reader’s understanding. 

True/False 

Make some written or spoken statements related to the story, and students decide whether they are true or false (kei te tika/kei te hē). If a statement is false, the students have to make it correct. 

For example: 

Tuatahi, horoia ngā panana. 

The students would need to say it’s false (kei te tika), then provide the correct statement: 

Tuatahi, horoia ngā kerepe. 

Cloze activity 

Create gaps in the written text for students to complete. A cloze is a good way to help students notice the grammar of te reo Māori, as well as improve their prediction skills and encourage them to make intelligent guesses from context and picture cues. 

For example: 

Reka _____ kepapa huarākau. Anei ngā tohutohu. 

Tuatahi,_____ ngā kerepe. 

Tuatoru, tapahia ngā _____ kia _____. 

The gaps in a cloze can represent a consistent part of speech such as nouns or pronouns. Alternatively, words can be deleted at random, such as every third word. 

You can make a cloze exercise easier for students by:  

• telling them how many letters are in the missing word 
• providing the first letter 
• giving them a list of words to choose from. 

A cloze task can be extended to incorporate listening and speaking, where you read a piece of text and stop at each missing word, so students can suggest an appropriate word to fill the gap. 

Same/Different 

In pairs, students can use the picture cards in Resource sheet 3.9. Each card shows nine numbered food pictures in a grid. Some of the pictures appear in the same square in card A and in card E (he rite, same). Some are in different squares (he rerekē, different).

Without looking at their partner’s card, students must speak te reo Māori to figure out where the same pictures appear in the same place on both cards. They should place counters on the matching squares they identify, to allow you to monitor the task.

Some useful language structures include:

He aha kei roto i te pouaka tuarima? What’s in the fifth box?

He panana (kei roto i te pouaka tuarima). A banana (is in the fifth box).

He rite. (That’s) the same.

He rerekē. (That’s) different.

Other ideas 

Animation  

Students watch the animation Te mahi kai He Reo Tupu, He Reo Ora to: 

• learn real-life language about food preparation 
• reinforce the tikanga of the story, that manuhiri are the priority and are given the best food available. 

The animations in He Reo Tupu, He Reo Ora are supported with useful information, including the storyline, grammar, Māori transcript, and English translation. Before showing the animations, make sure you are familiar with this information. 

Speaking fluency (Kōrero)

Students have three consecutive opportunities to practise delivering a kōrero about how to make fruit kebabs. They should do this without notes, although they could use picture cues or physical props. 

Students deliver their kōrero to three different people, with less time allocated for each subsequent delivery. For example, give them four minutes for their first delivery, three minutes for their second, and two minutes for their final delivery. (You can tailor the times to suit your students.) The premise is that students’ fluency should improve with each delivery of the same kōrero. If they wish, students can use mime or role play to embellish their kōrero. 

Building sentences

In small groups of four to six, students play a game using cards with words and phrases from the story (available on pages 7–9). The aim is to create sensible phrases or sentences using the cards. At the start of the game, each student gets three to five cards from the pack. If a student can’t create a sensible phrase or sentence on their turn, they pick up a card from the pack. The first person who has no cards left wins. 

The students’ sentences don’t have to match those in the book. For example: 

Tapahia ngā panana. (Cut the bananas.) 

Anei ngā ārani. (Here are the oranges.) 

Reka ngā rare. (The lollies are delicious.) 

Werohia ngā āporo me ngā rare kōpungapunga. (Pierce the apples and the marshmallows.) 

Examples of words on the cards are: 

• Tuatahi, Tuarua, Tuatoru 
• Mā wai e, Mā, ngē rā? 
• ngā panana, ngā huakiwi, ngā āporo. 

Mini book  

Print the mini-book template (with instructions), so that every child in your class can take home a mini version of this story to read with whānau. 

Song / Waiata 

These waiata will support the kaupapa of the reader:

• Waiata mō te kai (to the tune of Frère Jacques) 
• Hei konei e te ariki – a grace sung before meals (includes an mp3 and song sheet) 
• He rourou mā koutou – the first three lines are derived from a proverb about cooperating, sharing resources, and looking after visitors (includes an mp3 and song sheet). 

Whakapai (echo) ēnei Kai (echo) 

Hei oranga (echo) 

Mō te tinana (echo) 

(bless these foods, as sustenance for the body). 

Using the books in early childhood

In English-medium ECE settings, where Māori language is a natural part of the programme (as recommended in the Mana reo strand of Te Whāriki), the big books for Reo Tupu stories can be used for shared reading with tamariki. 

These stories will allow teachers to weave Māori language and culture into their everyday activities, demonstrating the value they place on te reo and tikanga Māori. This is especially important for enhancing identity, sense of belonging, and well-being. The audio component of the e-books will support teachers and tamariki to pronounce te reo Māori correctly.

Stories / Pakiwaitara 

The following stories are relevant to the kaupapa of this reader:

• Black-Taute, H. (2010). He taonga anō te kai. Wellington: Learning Media. (He Purapura book about healthy and unhealthy kai.)
• Heart Foundation NZ. (2017). Ngā mahi mātātoa a Hina rāua ko Māui. Auckland: Te Hotu Manawa Māori. (A teaching kit on healthy eating and exercise, with four books covering the four seasons. Includes Hine rāua ko Māui, a waiata recorded by Ruia Aperehama.)
• Ministry of Education. (2006). Te uru rākau. Wellington: Huia Publishers. (Ngā Kete Kōrero book about fruit)
• Te Awa, M. (2009). He purou hua rākau. Wellington: Learning Media. (Pīpī book about fruit)
• Vercoe, W & R. (2008). Nāu te rourou nāku te rourou. Wellington: Huia Publishers. (An illustrated recipe book. The title is taken from the proverb” “Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora te manuhiri” – Your food basket and my food basket will satisfy the visitors.)