📚 Unit Plans → 🌿 Unit 11: Te Reo Māori Foundations → 📖 Lesson 4: Whānau Connections
Years 9–10 Hauora / Health & PE

Unit 11 Lesson 4: Whānau Connections

Unit 11 Lesson 4: Whānau Connections - Relationships and Questions: Building whānau vocabulary, relationships, and question forms. Free NZ curriculum resource f

Unit 11: Te Reo Māori Foundations — Kōrerotia, Whakarongo, Whakaatu

Building whānau vocabulary, relationships, and question forms.

1 He Tīmatanga
2 Ko Wai Au?
3 Tikanga in Kōrerorero
4 Whānau Connections
5 Kōrerorero o Ia Rā

🎯 Learning Objectives & Success Criteria

By the end of this lesson, ākonga will be able to:

  • Use whānau vocabulary to describe relationships.
  • Ask and answer basic questions about family.
  • Connect whānau kōrero to their pepeha.

Success Criteria

  • ✓ Correct use of whānau terms in a sentence
  • ✓ At least one question formed with "Ko wai?" or "He aha?"
  • ✓ Clear connection between whānau and identity

Ngā Mahi - Lesson Flow (65 minutes)

1. Whānau Word Wall (15 mins)

Collaborative vocabulary

Build a whānau word wall together (māmā, pāpā, tuakana, teina, whaea, matua). Students add translations and example sentences.

2. Pātai Practice (25 mins)

Question stems + pair kōrero

Teach simple question stems: Ko wai? He aha? Kei hea? Students practise asking and answering about whānau members.

  • Example: Ko wai tō māmā? Ko ____ tōku māmā.
  • Extend with location or roles (He kaiako ia).

3. Kōrero Role Play (20 mins)

Role cards

Use the role cards to practise short whānau conversations. Encourage students to include a question and a response with whānau vocabulary.

Whakamutunga: Exit Reflection (5 mins)

Short written reflection

Exit ticket: Write one whānau sentence and one question you can ask at home.

📊 Assessment Notes

  • Formative check: listen for correct whānau terms and question structure.
  • Collect: exit ticket sentences to inform next lesson.

🧺 Resources & Materials

🗣️ Whakawhiti Kōrero — Structure Drill (10 minutes)

No video for this part. Two mislabelled maths screencasts used to sit here; this drill replaces them and does the job they claimed to do.

  1. Model it. Write one sentence pattern on the board and say it aloud twice — Kei te <mahi> au. Ākonga echo it, then say it once with their own kupu in the gap.
  2. Swap the slot. In pairs, ākonga take turns changing only the word in the gap. Ten swaps each, no writing. The point is the pattern staying steady while the kupu moves.
  3. Swap the frame. Now change the frame to Kei te <mahi> koe? and run it as question-and-answer. Ākonga notice for themselves that the pattern took a question with one change.
  4. Say it back. Each pair offers one sentence to the class. Kaiako corrects pronunciation only — vowel length and stress — not vocabulary choice.

Exit check: each ākonga writes one sentence using the frame and underlines the part that stayed the same.

Kaiako Planning Snapshot

Te Reo Māori — Language Foundations — Years 9–10

Curriculum alignment: Te Mātaiaho | Te Reo Māori — Oral language, identity, and cultural connection (Years 9–10). Achievement Objective: Students use te reo Māori in a range of communicative contexts with increasing fluency.

Ngā Whāinga Akoranga — Learning Intentions

  • Produce and respond to key kupu and phrases in te reo Māori with correct pronunciation and intonation
  • Use te reo Māori in meaningful social contexts: greetings, pepeha, whānau, and everyday kōrero
  • Connect language learning to cultural identity, whanaungatanga, and a sense of belonging

Inclusion & Accessibility

ESOL/ELL: celebrate multilingualism — reo Māori may be a third language; draw on transfer strategies. Neurodiverse learners: allow oral responses and movement-based language activities. Accessibility: audio recordings of all target kupu available; provide printed word-and-image cards.