Te Huarere - Unit 4

He Reo Tupu, He Reo Ora

He rā mokopuna.

A grandchild’s day.

(A fine day in winter – a great day to spend with a grandchild.)

This is the fourth unit plan from He Reo Tupu, He Reo Ora. It explores Te Huarere (The Weather).

Tikanga

Introduce the following aspects of tikanga Māori to your students:

Tāwhirimātea is the atua or kaitiaki associated with weather elements such as the winds, storms, and the rain. All aspects of the weather come under his influence. The many descendants of Tāwhirimātea include all the different types of winds, the various types of storms, and all the different forms of rain.
Time and seasons are marked by such different natural cycles as the reappearance of Matariki to mark the new year and the monthly lunar calendar, which runs from new moon to new moon.

Reomations

The following reomations support this unit:

Ngā āhua o te huarere (The weather)
He kōrero ā-waea (Telephone conversation)
Ngā tohu huarere mō āpōpō (Weather forecast for tomorrow)
Ngā tohu huarere 1 (Weather forecasts 1)
Ngā tohu huarere 1 (Weather forecasts 2)

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.

Learning intentions

Possible learning intentions for this unit of work are to:

understand and use familiar words about the weather
understand and use short phrases about the weather
ask and answer questions about the weather
communicate about the weather using descriptive words and expressions in a sentence
describe the weather as it is right now
understand short weather reports
use “ki” to describe the weather in a place
use “tino” (very) in descriptions of the weather
use “ko” to ask and answer a question about the atua Māori associated with the weather.

Possible learning intentions for extension are to:

recognise, understand, and use less common words associated with the weather
recognise, understand, and use the Māori names for the main New Zealand cities and the meanings/stories behind them
discuss weather in the past
discuss the coming weather
understand and use some time phrases to describe weather in the past
understand and use some synonyms associated with the weather
understand and use “kāore”
use the word “āhua” to mean “quite” or “rather”
explore the way some words are used in gradations
learn the Māori names for ngā hau (winds)
recognise elements of weather in spoken texts, such as karakia
understand and use the days of the week developed by the Māori Language Commission.

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 - 4

Flashcards 1

To introduce weather vocabulary, use flashcards made from resource sheet 4.1. For example, you could hold up the weather symbol for the sun and offer the students two choices:

Maori vocabulary	English translation
Te rā?	The sun?
He ua?	Some rain?

While “te” is singular, “he” can mean either “a” or “some”.

Or (more challenging):

Maori vocabulary	English translation
Kei te whiti te rā?	Is the sun shining?
Kei te heke te ua?	Is the rain falling?

Or (even more challenging):

Maori vocabulary	English translation
Kei te whiti te rā? Kei te heke te ua rānei?	Is the sun shining? Or is the rain falling?

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

Flashcards 2

You could combine the words and weather symbols from resource sheet 4.1 to make an additional pack of weather-related flashcards, with half showing weather tohu (symbols) and the other half words. Get the students to play games such as Snap, Fish, and Pairs with the cards.

Bingo cards

You could use resource sheet 4.2 and play a game of weather Bingo with your students to reinforce the weather vocabulary. For a more challenging version of weather Bingo, put weather words or phrases on Bingo cards and hold up the associated weather symbols.

Same-different 1

Have the students work in pairs on a same-different task where both students have a numbered grid with weather symbols in the boxes. Resource sheet 4.3 provides a template for this task. The students have to communicate with each other, working across their grids box by box, to find out which boxes are identical (“he rite”) and which are different (“he rerekē”). Of course, they must not show their grids to each other until they think they have worked out all the similarities and differences.

Tasks and activities 5 - 8

Same-different 2

Resource sheet 4.4 provides the stimulus for another same-different task. The two maps of New Zealand, with their weather symbols, have similarities and differences for the students to compare.

Multiple choice

Resource sheet 4.5 provides illustrations of the weather from the reomation Ngā āhua o te huarere (The weather). Create multi-choice descriptions to accompany these pictures and get the students to work out which description best applies to which picture. For example, you might create descriptions such as the following:

Maori vocabulary	English translation
Ka heke te ua.	The rain fell.
Ka pupuhi te hau.	The wind blew.
Ka whiti te rā i ētahi wā.	The sun shone sometimes.
Ka tau te kohu.	The mist settled.

Expressing temperature

If your students know enough about numbers in te reo Māori, you could explore how to express temperatures, for example:

Maori vocabulary	English translation
Tekau mā iwa te pāmahana.	The temperature is nineteen.

Weather charts

Encourage your students to keep a daily record of the weather for a week. They could record the weather on a chart like the one below. They could use the tohu huarere (weather symbols) from resource sheet 4.1. Older students could write their own descriptions. Younger students may need to dictate their descriptions to you. The students can use single words, phrases, or whole sentences, depending on their stage of learning.

Mane	Tūrei	Wenerei	Taite	Paraire
Ka whiti te rā i ētahi wā. The sun shone sometimes.	Ka puta ngā kapua. The clouds appeared.	Ka whiti te rā. The sun shone.	Ka heke te ua. The rain fell.	Ka heke te ua. The rain fell.

Language tip

The verbal particle “ka” is useful, it can be used to indicate the present, past or future.

Tasks and activities 9 - 12

Information transfer

You could read a report about the weather conditions around the country, and the students could draw the appropriate weather symbols onto a map of New Zealand. The place names could be in English or te reo Māori (as in resource sheet 4.6).

Information transfer tasks of this kind encourage deep processing of information. You could use resource sheet 4.7 for another information transfer task involving the reomation Ngā tohu huarere mō āpōpō (Weather forecast for tomorrow), where the students provide text to correspond with the reomation pictures. More about information transfer tasks is also available.

As your students become confident with the language structures we use to describe the weather, they can take on the role of the teacher and write short weather reports to read to the class while their classmates record the appropriate symbols on a map.

Strip-story

Convert the weather forecasts on resource sheet 4.8 into strip stories. Cut a forecast into strips. Give each student one strip to read and memorise. Once all the sentences are read and memorised get them to work together to arrive at the correct order orally – for example, from north to south. You can also do a written form of this task, where the students are allowed to keep their allocated written sentence while they work with others to put all the sentences in order. More information about how to make a strip-story or a strip-picture can be found under the heading "Using tasks and activities" on this page. The reomation Ngā āhua o te huarere (The weather) contains text that you could also use for a similar task using selected frames from the reomation as visual cues.

Another variation would be to cut a five-day weather record chart (as depicted earlier) into ten strips, with five strips showing the weather symbols, and five the weather descriptions. Get your students to put the chart back together using simple clues that you give them about the weather on each day.

Cloze

Design a cloze task where the students fill in gaps in a piece of text that also has weather related pictures to help them. For example, you could draw the following on the board:

Rātapu

Mane

Tūrei

rā

19° 13°

18° 15°

kapua

20° 14°

The cloze task could be:

Maori vocabulary	English translation
I te Rātapu, ka whiti te ____.	On Sunday, the ____ shone.
I te ____, ka ____ te ua.	On____, the rain ____.
I te Tūrei, ____ kapua.	On Tuesday, it was ____.

Or you could create a cloze using selected text from the transcript online and images from the reomation He kōrero ā-waea (Telephone conversation).

Alternatively, you could design a cloze task without picture clues. More information about designing a cloze task and making them more, or less, challenging is also available.

True-false-make it right

For a true-false-make it right task, give each student a copy of the same New Zealand weather map (as in resource sheet 4.4). Describe it in te reo Māori, working systematically down from the north of the North Island and deliberately including some false statements along the way. The students’ job is to tell you “kei te tika” (true) or “kei te he” (false) as you make each statement. If it is the latter, can they go a step further and tell you what you should have said?

Once they are confident, the students could take on the task of describing a weather map, including some deliberate errors for their peers to notice and correct.

Tasks and activities 13 - 15

Dycomm

For a dycomm task, give one student a map of the weather in the North Island and their partner a map of the weather in the South Island (as in resource sheet 4.9). Their task is to combine their knowledge and use Māori communicatively to fill in their respective information gaps in order to arrive at the whole weather picture for Aotearoa.

A variation would be to give each student in a group the weather in a main centre. Each group member could then share their information so they can work out the weather across the country. More ideas about how to vary a dycomm task are also available.

Dictocomp

For a dictocomp task, read or listen to a weather forecast for New Zealand, twice, as in the reomation Ngā tohu huarere (Weather forecasts). During the first reading, just get the students to listen. During the second reading, pause between the sentences so that they can jot down some notes (in English and/or te reo Māori). Their task is then to work in small groups and, using their notes, recapture the key information in the forecast. More ideas about how to vary a dictocomp task are also available.

Ordinal numbers

If your students are confident with the days of the week and the cardinal numbers, you could introduce them to the ordinal numbers in te reo Maori as a way of describing the weather on each day of the school week, for example:

Maori vocabulary	English translation
I te ra tuatahi, he kapua.	On the first day, it was cloudy.
I te ra tuarua, he ua.	On the second day, it rained.

See Materials that come with this resource to download:

Te Huarere Worksheet 4.1 (.pdf)
Te Huarere Worksheet 4.2 (.pdf)
Te Huarere Worksheet 4.3 (.pdf)
Te Huarere Worksheet 4.4 (.pdf)
Te Huarere Worksheet 4.5 (.pdf)
Te Huarere Worksheet 4.6 (.pdf)
Te Huarere Worksheet 4.8 (.pdf)
Te Huarere Worksheet 4.9 (.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 formally:

Observe your students as they work on different communicative tasks and activities, individually, in pairs, or in groups, and assess their performance. Do they have the necessary vocabulary to communicate about the weather meaningfully? Is the language that they are using accurate? Can they ask others about the weather? Can they work with classmates to communicate about the weather? Can they convey a simple negative? Do they initiate kōrero in te reo Māori about the weather?

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, such as communicating about the weather.

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:

take part in an information transfer task where they have to transpose the symbols from a weather map into written text
listen to a dictocomp, where you read a weather report twice and they make notes and then reproduce the main points
combine bits of information in a dycomm task to arrive at the whole picture. (For example, one student might know the weather forecast for Sunday to Wednesday and another for Thursday to Saturday. Can they negotiate meaning together to work out the weather forecast for the whole week?)

You could also get your students to participate in a 4–3–2 task, where you give them four, then three, and then two minutes (or whatever time you judge is appropriate) to practise describing a weather map.

Alternatively, you could use a recording of a weather report so that they can get the gist of the weather and discover other ways of describing the weather.

Resources and references

Waiata

“Kōpere” (about a rainbow, in Te Wao Nui a Tāne on pages 11 and 63)

“Waiata ki te Rā” (in Into Music 2 on page 47)

“Uira” (about lightning, in Te Wao Nui a Tāne on page 45 and page 69 and on Kiwi Kidsongs Collection: Twenty-two Favourite Songs from Kiwi Kidsongs 1-–8)

“Whiti te Marama” (about the moon, in Te Wao Nui a Tāne on page 47 and page 69)

“Tīhore mai te Rangi” (in Into Music 1 on page 13 and in Te Wao Nui a Tāne on page 13)

“Whakarongo ki te Hau” (in Into Music 1 on page 53)

“Purea Nei” (which uses weather words, in HeWaiata mā te Katoa Songs for Everyone on pages 6–8)

“Ngā Rā o te Wiki” (about the days of the week, in Hei Waiata, Hei Whakakoakoa – Waiata to Support Teaching and Learning of te Reo Māori in English-medium Schools: Years 1–8 on page 16)

For more waiata about the days of the week, see Unit 6 Ngā Tau (Numbers).

“Mō Ake” (about the children of Rangi and Papa being the guardians of the natural elements in Into Music 3 on pages 13–15 and page 74). [This is a resource intended for year 7–-10 students.]

He Kohikohinga 6 has a weather report on page 14. He Kohikohinga 16 looks at the clothing we wear for different weather conditions on pages 13–15.

Stories

Black-Taute, Hera (2004). Te Waea Pūkoro. Wellington: Learning Media. [This He Purapura story is about a netball game that is almost washed out by the rain.]

Kaa, Oho (2006). Kua Puta a Matariki. Wellington: Learning Media. [This He Purapura story takes place on a cold night in the middle of winter.]

McPherson, Betty (2007). Ngā Mata Rerehau. Wellington: Learning Media. [This He Purapura book features the wind and wind turbines.]

References

Amery, Heather (2006). First Thousand Words in Māori. Wellington: Huia Publishers. [See page 48 for weather terms and page 46 for the names for the days of the week that were developed by the Māori Language Commission.]

Barlow, C. (1996). Tikanga Whakaaro – Key Concepts in Māori Culture. Auckland: Oxford University Press.

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

Melbourne, Hirini (2004). HeWaiata mā te Katoa Songs for Everyone. Wellington: Learning Media. [Book and CD]

Melbourne, Hirini (2007). Te Wao Nui a Tāne. Wellington: Huia Publishers. [Book and CD]

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]

Ministry of Education (2001). Into Music 1: Classroom Music in Years 1–3. Wellington: Learning Media. [Book and CD]

Ministry of Education (2002). Into Music 2: Classroom Music in Years 4–6. Wellington: Learning Media. [Book and CD]

Ministry of Education (2003). Into Music 3: Classroom Music in Years 7–10. Wellington: Learning Media. [Book and CD]

Ministry of Education (2000). Kiwi Kidsongs Collection: Twenty-two Favourite Songs from Kiwi Kidsongs 1-–8. Wellington: Learning Media. [Book and CDs]

Moorefield, John (2003). Te Whanake 2 Te Pihinga. Auckland: Longman Pearson Education. [See page 79 for some weather symbols.]

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