Best for
Use as a simple action-based entry point before more complex taiao, kai, or sustainability study.
Primary support resource • Years 4-8 • Taiao and local action
Kaitiakitanga for Kids
This handout helps younger ākonga turn kaitiakitanga from a nice idea into visible action. The best use is practical: noticing what we care for, what we already do, and what one new action we will actually try.
Free action sheet, premium localised taiao version
This version already works. Te Wānanga becomes useful when you want local awa, ngahere, beach, or marae examples built into the action list.
- Swap in local species, streams, or beaches.
- Add picture-supported prompts for emergent readers.
- Save a kaitiakitanga starter pack in My Kete.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 20-30 minutes.
- Grouping: Individual completion with class kōrero.
- Prep: Decide what local taonga or places you want students to name.
- Teaching move: Ask for one concrete action, not ten vague promises.
Resources already provided
- Simple definition scaffold
- Kaitiaki action checklist
- Kupu Māori word bank
- Draw-and-write response space
- Teacher-only curriculum companion
This page is strongest when students talk about a place they know, not a generic “environment”.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning what kaitiakitanga means in everyday life.
- We are learning to notice actions that protect people, places, and living things.
- We are learning to choose one new action we can actually try.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can explain kaitiakitanga in my own words.
- I can identify actions that show care for the taiao.
- I can make one realistic pledge and explain why it matters.
1. What is kaitiakitanga?
A simple explanation
Kaitiakitanga means caring for and protecting the world around us. It includes people, whenua, wai, animals, plants, and the places that matter to our communities.
2. Tick the things you already do
At home
- Turn off dripping taps.
- Sort recycling.
- Use leftovers.
At kura
- Pick up rubbish.
- Care for plants or gardens.
- Share equipment well.
In the community
- Protect birds and insects.
- Keep beaches and awa clean.
- Walk, bike, or carpool when possible.
3. Kupu Māori to know
| Kupu | Meaning | My own example |
|---|---|---|
| Kaitiaki | Guardian or protector | ________________________ |
| Taiao | Environment or natural world | ________________________ |
| Whenua | Land | ________________________ |
| Wai | Water | ________________________ |
| Taonga | Treasure or something precious | ________________________ |
4. Draw a place or living thing you care about
Choose a beach, awa, maunga, bird, tree, garden, or other taonga from your world.
5. My kaitiaki pledge
Circle one action to try this week
I will care for __________________________________ by __________________________________.
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
Social Sciences — Tikanga ā-Iwi
Level 3–4: Understand how Māori cultural practices, values, and whakapapa shape identity and community; recognise the significance of te Tiriti o Waitangi and the contribution of Māori culture to Aotearoa New Zealand's national identity.
Te Reo Māori — Language and Culture
Level 3–4: Use te reo Māori to express cultural concepts, identity, and relationships with accuracy and respect; understand the significance of Māori language as a taonga and its role in sustaining mātauranga Māori.
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
This resource engages directly with te ao Māori as its subject — the values, practices, language, and worldview that have sustained Māori communities across centuries of challenge and change. Mātauranga Māori is not a supplement to this learning: it is the source. Students approaching this material are invited to engage with it not as outside observers studying a foreign culture, but as people in relationship with a living knowledge tradition that shapes the place they live, the language they may speak, and the obligations they carry as tāngata o Aotearoa — people of this land. That relationship calls for care, curiosity, and respect for knowledge-holders who carry what no textbook can fully contain.
Tuhia ōu whakaaro · Write Your Thoughts
Reflect on what you have learned today. What was the most important idea? What question do you still have?
Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Support Materials
This handout is designed to be used alongside the broader unit resources available at Te Kete Ako handouts library. Related resources from the same unit are linked in the unit planner. All resources are provided — no additional preparation is required to use this handout in your classroom.
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot
Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions
Students will engage with this resource to investigate the intersection of kai (food), culture, and climate — exploring how mātauranga Māori approaches to food production, preservation, and distribution offer powerful responses to contemporary food security and climate challenges in Aotearoa New Zealand and globally.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
- ✅ Students can explain how traditional Māori kai practices (maramataka, kūmara cultivation, rāhui) embody ecological knowledge and food security principles.
- ✅ Students can connect kai culture and climate scarcity to contemporary community action and food sovereignty movements.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: Provide graphic organisers that map traditional kai practices to modern food security concepts at the entry level. Offer extension tasks asking students to research a specific iwi's traditional food system and evaluate its contemporary relevance, or to investigate a local food sovereignty initiative.
ELL / ESOL: Pre-teach domain vocabulary (food sovereignty, food security, kaitiakitanga, rāhui, maramataka) using visual diagrams and real-world examples. Draw connections to students' own cultural food traditions — these are valid entry points into the unit's themes. Allow oral or visual presentation of learning as alternatives to written tasks.
Inclusion: Kai is a universal human experience — all students have a relationship with food, seasonality, and sharing. Neurodiverse learners benefit from concrete, hands-on engagement with these concepts (e.g., examining a kūmara, mapping seasonal foods). Acknowledge diverse economic circumstances sensitively when discussing food security. Choice in how students demonstrate understanding (written, visual, oral) supports inclusive assessment.
Mātauranga Māori lens: The maramataka — the Māori lunar calendar — is one of Aotearoa's most sophisticated environmental data systems, encoding centuries of ecological observation about planting, harvesting, fishing, and weather patterns. Kūmara cultivation in pre-colonial Aotearoa was a feat of agricultural knowledge adapted to a new climate. Rāhui (temporary resource restrictions) is indigenous resource management — conservation before conservation. Kaitiakitanga frames the relationship between people and kai not as extraction but as reciprocal guardianship. These are not historical curiosities — they are living solutions to contemporary problems.
Prior knowledge: Students benefit from foundational understanding of climate change and food systems. No specialist mātauranga Māori knowledge required for entry-level engagement — the unit builds this knowledge progressively.
Curriculum alignment
- Place and Environment — Social Studies: Understand how people's management of resources reflects their values and their view of sustainability — and how mātauranga Māori frameworks provide models for sustainable resource management.
- Ecology — Living World: Understand how human activities and natural factors affect the distribution and abundance of organisms; evaluate the impact of changes on ecosystem health and food systems.