Best for
Week-one routines, junior to middle-school te reo starters, relief folders, and classrooms wanting visible everyday reo rather than one-off language-week tasks.
Te reo Māori • Foundations starter • Years 3-8 • Ready to use tomorrow
Te Reo Māori Basics
Use this handout to seed everyday classroom reo without turning the lesson into a token vocabulary list. It gives ākonga core greetings, question frames, classroom kupu, and a short practice routine that can be revisited across the week.
Free class starter, premium localisation path
This handout is ready to print now. If you want a version rebuilt around your rohe, kura values, local place names, or a junior/senior split, Te Wānanga and Creation Studio can adapt the same structure without losing the tikanga and print clarity.
- Swap in local place names, class routines, or whānau-introduction language.
- Create a lower-floor version with fewer kupu or a stretch version with fuller kōrero frames.
- Save the adapted version in My Kete and revisit it term by term.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 15-20 minutes as a direct lesson, then 3-5 minute revisits across the week.
- Grouping: Whole-class modelling first, then pairs or table groups for quick rehearsal.
- Prep: Choose which kupu will become daily classroom language and confirm local pronunciation for any names or places you add.
- Teaching move: Keep the expectation warm and normal. Te reo grows through repeated use, not perfection on day one.
Resources already provided
- Core greeting and response bank
- Simple introduction question frames
- Everyday classroom kupu and routines
- Short practice ladder for support, core, and stretch learners
- Curriculum companion for teacher planning and reporting
If the lesson mentions phrase support, class routines, or quick practice tasks, they already exist on this page.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning to use a small bank of everyday te reo Māori with care and confidence.
- We are learning to greet, introduce, and respond in short familiar contexts.
- We are learning to treat te reo Māori as normal classroom language in Aotearoa.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can choose a greeting that fits the moment.
- I can use at least two short sentence frames without copying every word.
- I can explain one way this handout helps me use more te reo in class.
Curriculum integration / Te Marautanga alignment
Use the companion page to keep the teaching intent explicit around familiar oral language, early vocabulary recognition, and visible everyday classroom use of te reo Māori.
Why this matters in Aotearoa
Te reo Māori is a taonga and one of the official languages of Aotearoa New Zealand. Small daily language routines build whanaungatanga, belonging, and respect. A mātauranga Māori lens here is not decorative: it means treating language as relational, living, and connected to people, place, and identity.
Kupu tīmatanga / Starter phrase bank
Greetings
Kia oraHello / thank you / be well
MōrenaGood morning
Ata mārieFormal good morning
Questions and responses
Kei te pēhea koe?How are you?
Kei te pai ahauI am well
Ko wai tō ingoa?What is your name?
Introduction frames
Ko ___ ahauI am ___
Nō ___ ahauI am from ___
Ko tōku akomanga ko ___My class is ___
Classroom kupu
Whakarongo maiListen here
Titiro maiLook here
Pātai / WhakautuQuestion / answer
Numbers, colours, and quick recall
Ngā tau
1-5: tahi, rua, toru, whā, rima
6-10: ono, whitu, waru, iwa, tekau
Ngā tae
whero red, kōwhai yellow, kākāriki green, kikorangi blue
mangu black, mā white
Low-floor option: stay with greetings and numbers 1-5. Stretch option: use a colour or number inside a spoken sentence or class challenge.
Teach-this-tomorrow practice ladder
Support
Point to the phrase, repeat after the kaiako, then echo it with a partner.
Core
Greet a partner, ask one question, then answer using the sentence frames.
Stretch
Add where you are from, a classroom instruction, or one extra kupu from the numbers or colours set.
Neurodiversity-aware support
Chunk one phrase at a time, allow pointing before speaking, and let students rehearse with a trusted partner before whole-class sharing.
Mini kōrero model
A: Kia ora. Ko wai tō ingoa?
B: Kia ora. Ko Maia ahau. Kei te pēhea koe?
A: Kei te pai ahau. Nō Kirikiriroa ahau.
B: Ka pai. Ka kite anō.
Taku reo plan / My reo plan
Write two phrases you will try to use this week and one classroom moment when you will use them.
Draw or map your classroom reo
Sketch where these phrases could live in your classroom: on the door, near the mat, on a wall display, or in your group area.
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.
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 deepen understanding of Te Ao Māori — exploring whakapapa, tikanga, and cultural identity as living systems that shape who we are in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
- ✅ Students can explain key concepts from this resource using their own words.
- ✅ Students can connect tikanga Māori and whakapapa to real-world examples in Aotearoa.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: Provide sentence starters, visual glossaries, or graphic organisers to give entry-level access for students who need additional support. Offer extension tasks that deepen cultural inquiry — for example, exploring local hapū histories or interviewing a kaumātua.
ELL / ESOL: Pre-teach key kupu Māori (whakapapa, tikanga, mana, mauri) with bilingual glossaries where available. Allow students to respond in their home language as a bridge to English expression.
Inclusion: Use accessible formats — clear headings, adequate whitespace, chunked tasks. Neurodiverse learners benefit from structured choice in how they demonstrate understanding (oral, visual, written). Acknowledge that students may hold personal connections to the cultural content.
Mātauranga Māori lens: This unit centres Te Ao Māori as a living knowledge system. Whakapapa is not merely genealogy but a relational framework linking people, place, and time. Tikanga grounds behaviour in kaupapa Māori principles. Approach content with aroha and manaakitanga.
Prior knowledge: No specialist prior knowledge required for entry-level engagement. Best used after relevant lesson sequences, or as a standalone introduction to cultural identity.
Curriculum alignment
- Identity, Culture, and Organisation: Understand how cultural identity shapes participation in society — whakapapa, tikanga, and mana as foundations of Māori identity in Aotearoa New Zealand.