Best for
Morning meetings, circle time, oral-language warm-ups, kapa haka support, and any class building confident greeting routines in Aotearoa.
Te reo Māori • Greetings routine • Years 3-8 • Ready to use tomorrow
Te Reo Māori Greetings
Use this handout to teach greetings as relationship language rather than a memorised list. It gives ākonga context-aware greetings, farewells, response frames, and short speaking practice that can become part of everyday class culture.
Free whanaungatanga starter, premium adaptation path
This handout already works as a printable class routine. If you want a version customised for formal mihi, local protocols, a younger cohort, or a bilingual school welcome sequence, Te Wānanga can rebuild it without losing the print-ready classroom structure.
- Add local place names, school values, or your daily karakia and mihi flow.
- Create a lower-floor picture-supported version or a more formal senior version.
- Save the adapted set in My Kete and reopen it in Creation Studio later.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 10-15 minutes for direct teaching, then 2-3 minute daily revisits.
- Grouping: Whole class for modelling, then pairs, rotating circles, or doorway greetings.
- Prep: Decide which greeting contexts matter most in your classroom and how you will model pronunciation.
- Teaching move: Reinforce that greetings establish whanaungatanga and respect. Do not rush to translation-only mode.
Resources already provided
- Context-aware greeting bank
- Farewell phrases for leaving and staying
- Wellbeing question and response frame
- Mini kōrero model plus writing rehearsal space
- Curriculum companion for teacher planning clarity
If tomorrow's lesson needs clear greeting prompts and a short oral-language rehearsal, they already exist here.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning to greet people respectfully in te reo Māori.
- We are learning to notice that different contexts call for different greetings.
- We are learning to hold a short greeting-and-response exchange with confidence.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can choose a greeting for one person, two people, or a group.
- I can respond to a short wellbeing question using a sentence frame.
- I can explain why greetings matter for manaakitanga and belonging.
Curriculum integration / Te Marautanga alignment
Use the companion page to keep the curriculum fit explicit around familiar spoken exchanges, appropriate greetings and farewells, and classroom language that supports belonging in Aotearoa.
Tikanga note: greetings carry meaning
In te ao Māori, greeting someone is not just a verbal transaction. It recognises the person in front of you and helps establish whanaungatanga. Teaching greetings well means teaching the context, respect, and care that sit underneath the words.
Greeting bank by context
One person
Tēnā koeHello to one person
Kia oraFlexible greeting in many situations
Two people
Tēnā kōruaHello to two people
Kia ora kōruaInformal shared greeting
Three or more
Tēnā koutouFormal greeting for a group
Kia ora koutouWarm group greeting
Farewells
Haere rāGoodbye to the person leaving
E noho rāGoodbye to the person staying
Ka kite anōSee you again
Questions and responses
Ask
Kei te pēhea koe?How are you?
Ko wai tō ingoa?What is your name?
Respond
Kei te pai ahauI am well
Ko ___ ahauI am ___
Choose the right greeting
You greet your kaiako at the door.
Which greeting would you choose and why?
You welcome two visitors to your class.
Which greeting would fit best?
You say goodbye to a friend who is leaving.
Which farewell suits this context?
Mini kōrero / short dialogue
A: Tēnā koe. Kei te pēhea koe?
B: Kei te pai ahau. Ko wai tō ingoa?
A: Ko Aria ahau. Ko wai tō ingoa?
B: Ko Wiremu ahau. Ka kite anō.
Speaking ladder
- Read the greeting aloud with your partner and point to each kupu as you say it.
- Say it again without looking for at least one line.
- Swap one detail such as the name or farewell.
- If you are ready, use a more formal group greeting with two or three classmates.
Taku kōrero rehearsal / My greeting practice
Write the greeting exchange you want to practise tomorrow. Keep it short, accurate, and respectful.
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.