Years 0–3 | Te Pūnaha Ako — Learning Together

Lesson 2: How We Help One Another Learn

Children move from broad words such as kind and respectful to actions they can see, hear, practise and repair.

Ngā Whāinga Akoranga — Learning Intentions

WALT: I can show one action that helps another person learn.

WILF: I can notice what a learner needs, ask before helping, and demonstrate one of our class agreements.

Kaupapa | Central idea

Helpful actions protect a person’s dignity and choice.

Doing the task for someone, touching their body or equipment, or demanding an answer may look helpful while taking away their control.

Te Whakatakotoranga | Run of show

  1. Do Now — Helpful or not yet? 6 min
  2. Act 1 — What care looks and sounds like 9 min
  3. Act 2 — Ask before helping 10 min
  4. Act 3 — Make three class agreements 10 min
  5. Synthesise — Rehearse and repair 7 min
  6. Exit — One action 3 min

Tirohanga Whānui | What this lesson is doing

Class values often become attractive posters full of nouns: respect, kindness, manaakitanga. Young children cannot use a noun to repair a real moment unless the class has worked out what it looks and sounds like. This lesson creates only three agreements, tests each with a scenario, and includes a repair phrase. It avoids equating quietness, eye contact, still bodies or fast compliance with respect.

You’ll need

  • Two puppets, figures or teacher-drawn characters; large paper and markers.
  • Three headings: Make room, Notice and ask, Care for people and their work.
  • Optional communication cards: yes please, no thank you, show me, give me time, help me start.

Teacher language

Use “What might help this learner?” rather than “What is wrong with them?” Use “Ask first” rather than assuming that an adult or confident child knows what help another person needs.

Do Now — Helpful or not yet? 6 min

What it is: A puppet scene that separates good intention from helpful impact.

Run it

  1. Watch (2 min): One puppet reaches for a puzzle. The other says “I’ll help!” and completes it. Ask children to show: helpful, not helpful yet, or not sure.
  2. Replay (4 min): Invite alternatives. Replay with “Would you like help?”, wait for the answer, then offer the kind requested. Name the difference: the second version includes choice. Children may answer the puppet using speech, cards, gesture or AAC.

Act 1 — What care looks and sounds like 9 min

What it is: Translating a class value into actions without prescribing one “respectful” body.

Run it

  1. Generate examples (5 min): Ask, “If someone is sharing an idea, what could make room for them?” Record possibilities: pause, move materials aside, look towards the speaker or their work, keep drawing while listening, use a listening card, ask them to repeat, wait. Explicitly accept more than one way to attend.
  2. Sort by effect (4 min): For each action ask: “Could this help everyone? Might someone need something different?” Move fixed rules such as “always look at me” into a check first column.

Act 2 — Ask before helping 10 min

What it is: Practising a short help sequence children can use across the school day.

Run it

  1. Teach the sequence (3 min): Model: notice → ask → listen to the answer → help that way or step back. Include “no thank you” as a successful answer.
  2. Try three scenes (7 min): In pairs, rotate through a dropped pencil case, a hard-to-open container and a half-built block structure. The “learner” chooses a response card; the “helper” follows it. Nobody touches a person, mobility aid, communication device or personal item without permission. Swap roles.

Act 3 — Make three class agreements 10 min

What it is: Co-authoring a small agreement the class can actually remember and revisit.

Run it

  1. Choose evidence (6 min): Under each heading—Make room, Notice and ask, Care for people and their work—children select one action from the lesson. Draw or add a symbol beside it. Keep the wording positive and observable.
  2. Add repair (4 min): Write one shared repair phrase: “I’m sorry. Can I try that again?” Practise the adult response: “Yes. Show us the agreement you want to try.” Make clear that repair does not erase harm or remove adult responsibility for safety.

Synthesise — Rehearse and repair 7 min

What it is: Testing whether each agreement can guide an ordinary classroom moment.

Run it

  1. Freeze-frame (7 min): Small groups choose one agreement and make a still image or arrange figures to show it. The audience names the evidence they can see without guessing feelings. Then the group changes one detail to show a repair. A child may direct figures instead of performing.

Exit — One action 3 min

What it is: Choosing a concrete action for the next learning block.

Run it

  1. Point or say (3 min): Children choose one agreement and finish: “Next time we learn together, I can…” Revisit after the next group task and celebrate noticing or repair, not perfect compliance.

He aha te tautoko pai? | What helps me learn?

Ingoa / Name: ____________________   Akomanga / Class: ____________________

Circle, draw or tell someone: When I am learning, you can help by…

giving me time · showing me · reading with me · helping me start · asking first · something else

This record may stay private with the learner and teacher.

Ngā Huarahi Ako | Differentiation

Tautoko / Support

  • Rehearse with one puppet and two response cards before peer role-play. Let children observe or direct rather than act.
  • Use the same help-choice cards during real class tasks so communication does not depend on speech.

Toitoi / Extension

  • Test one agreement against two learners who need different kinds of support. Rewrite it so it preserves both choice and access.

Te reo Māori

  • Kupu in context: manaakitanga (care that upholds mana), tautoko (support), āe (yes), kāo (no), taihoa (wait).

Mātauranga Māori | Manaakitanga is not compliance

This lesson risks shrinking manaakitanga to “be nice” or using it to demand quiet obedience. Instead, care is judged by whether it upholds another person’s mana, agency and place in the group. The help sequence includes asking and accepting refusal. Invite local whānau and mana whenua to shape how manaakitanga is expressed in your kura; do not treat this generic activity as a definition of local tikanga.

Hononga Marautanga | Curriculum

Building relationships is important to help people work well together.

Te Mātaiaho (2025) · Social Sciences · Phase 1 · statement id 50759

Children test what “building relationships” requires in action: making room, noticing, asking, listening to the answer and repairing. The shared agreement becomes evidence they can use in later lessons rather than a statement pasted beside the learning.

Sources and checking