Two versions of this lesson. This is the full runsheet — every activity written out so you can teach it without prior preparation. If you already know the material and just want the shape of the week, use the one-page weekly planner instead. Same lesson, same outcomes, different amount of scaffolding for the kaiako.
Lesson 3 ended with a board list of people who would have to decide differently. Today the class becomes one of them.
Te Whakatakotoranga | Run of show
- Do Now — Back to the chains 6 min
- Act 1 — Widen the list 10 min
- Act 2 — The feasibility grid 18 min
- Act 3 — Choose, and say why 10 min
- Synthesise — Meet the poster brief 10 min
- Exit ticket 4 min
Tirohanga Whānui | What this lesson is doing
The trap in an action lesson is choosing something that feels good and cannot be finished. A feasibility grid fixes that by making students weigh two things at once: how much this would help manu, and how much it would actually take.
The honest finding, which students usually reach themselves, is that the highest-impact actions are the ones the class cannot do alone — and that is not a failure. It is the difference between an action and a campaign, and both are legitimate. What matters is that they choose with their eyes open rather than picking the first idea.
You'll need
- Action Planner — one per group
- Poster Rubric — one per student, used again in Lessons 5 and 7–9
- The Lesson 3 board list of decision-makers, and the cause-and-effect organisers
- If a planting or trapping action is likely, check your school's permission requirements before this lesson
Do Now — Back to the chains 6 min
What it is: Retrieval that puts yesterday's causes back in front of students before they start proposing solutions.
Run it
- Pairs reread their own organiser (2 min) and underline the action column.
- Harvest onto the board (4 min): take one action from each pair. Do not evaluate any of them yet — the whole point of Act 2 is that evaluation comes after the list.
Resist the urge to filter. Writing up an unrealistic idea and then having students discover it is unrealistic teaches far more than quietly leaving it off the board.
Act 1 — Widen the list 10 min
What it is: Groups add the actions nobody thought of, using categories rather than free brainstorm.
Run it
Give the five categories; groups add at least one action to each.
| Category | Example | Your idea |
|---|---|---|
| Add what is missing | Plant a dense native shrub group where the map showed no cover | ______ |
| Remove what harms | Clear rubbish from the drain; support a local trapping line | ______ |
| Make a safe place | Nest boxes; fence a wet corner off from mowing | ______ |
| Change a decision | Ask for one area to be mown less often | ______ |
| Change what people know | Signage; a campaign about cats at night | ______ |
Why categories (2 min): a free brainstorm produces five versions of the same idea. Categories force range — and the last two are the ones students rarely reach on their own, even though they are often the highest impact.
Act 2 — The feasibility grid 18 min
What it is: Groups plot every action on impact against effort, and discover the trade-off for themselves.
Run it
- Draw the grid (3 min): on the Action Planner. Horizontal axis effort — low to high. Vertical axis impact for manu — low to high.
- Place every action (10 min): each action gets a dot. The argument inside the group about where a dot goes is the learning; make them justify each placement out loud before it is drawn.
- Name the quadrants (5 min):
- High impact, low effort — do these. There are usually fewer than students hope.
- High impact, high effort — the real ones. Need partners, time, or permission.
- Low impact, low effort — fine, but do not mistake them for the work.
- Low impact, high effort — say so honestly and let them go.
The moment to catch: when a group realises their favourite idea is low-impact. Do not rescue it. Ask what would have to change to move it up the impact axis — that question is the whole of Lesson 3 applied.
Act 3 — Choose, and say why 10 min
What it is: A real decision, made on stated criteria and recorded.
Run it
- Each group nominates one action (3 min) and writes a single sentence: "We choose ______ because it is ______ impact and ______ effort, and it addresses ______ from our cause-and-effect chain."
- Hear the nominations (4 min).
- Class decides (3 min): vote, or combine two compatible actions. You hold the veto on feasibility and safety — say so before the vote, not after.
Kaiako check before you confirm: can it be finished in one session in Lesson 6? Does it need permission, and from whom? Is anything about it unsafe? Better to redirect now than to abandon it on the day.
Synthesise — Meet the poster brief 10 min
Run it
- Read the rubric together (5 min): the Poster Rubric. Five requirements — a clear message, data from the class count, a quote from an interview, kupu Māori used accurately, and a call to action.
- Locate the evidence they already hold (5 min): students write, next to each requirement, which lesson their evidence comes from. Data is Lesson 2. Quote is Lesson 3. If a box is empty, that is what they need before Lesson 5.
Hands forward to Lesson 5: nobody starts a poster from nothing. Everything on that rubric already exists in their books — Lesson 5 is assembly and craft, not invention.
Exit ticket 4 min
On a slip:
- Our class action is ______.
- One thing it will genuinely fix, and one thing it will not.
- Which rubric box I still have no evidence for.
Reading these: question 2 is the honest-evaluation muscle the Lesson 7 assessment depends on. A student who cannot name a limitation has been taught that actions are gestures. Question 3 is your prep list for Lesson 5.
Ngā Huarahi Ako | Differentiation
Tautoko / Support
- Give the grid with three actions already plotted so the student is comparing, not starting.
- Offer the sentence frame for the choice: "We choose ______ because ______."
- Assign the recorder role rather than the arguer role in the grid discussion.
Toitoi / Extension
- Cost the chosen action properly — plants, materials, hours, who pays.
- Draft the actual request to whoever holds the decision: the caretaker, the board, the council.
Te reo Māori
- Kupu: mahi tahi (working together), whakatipu (to grow, cultivate), kaitiakitanga (guardianship as practice, not sentiment).
- The poster rubric requires kupu Māori used accurately — not decoratively. Set that expectation now.
Mātauranga Māori | Kaitiakitanga is a duty, not a feeling
Students meet kaitiakitanga most often as a word attached to a poster. It is better understood as an inherited obligation to a specific place, held by the people who belong to it, and discharged through actual work — restoring, protecting, and knowing when to leave something alone.
That framing changes the feasibility grid. "Low effort" is not automatically better if the obligation is real. Ask students whether an easy action counts as kaitiakitanga, or whether it is only a gesture toward it — there is no single right answer and the argument is worth having.
Hononga Marautanga | Curriculum
Humans can support the health of the environment (e.g. composting, reusing, producing less waste, planting native plants).
Te Mātaiaho (2025) · Science · Phase 3 · Ecosystems · statement id 19816
The grid is this statement under constraint. Students are not listing ways humans could help in the abstract; they are ranking specific local actions by what each would actually achieve for the manu they counted, then committing to one they can complete. The limitation each group names in the exit ticket is what stops it becoming a slogan.
Sources and checking
- Native planting for birds: your regional council and local restoration groups publish species lists suited to your area. A national list is a poorer guide than a local one.
- Predator control: DOC publishes current guidance. Check it before students plan anything involving traps, and follow your school's safety policy.
- No effectiveness percentages are quoted here. Whether an action works depends on the place, and a borrowed figure would be a false precision.