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.
Five lessons of observation, analysis and argument end with the class changing something about an actual place.
Te Whakatakotoranga | Run of show
- Welcome, roles and safety 10 min
- Karakia tīmatanga 5 min
- Act 2 — Do the mahi 40–60 min
- Act 3 — Gallery walk 15 min
- Synthesise — What did we actually change? 12 min
- Unit reflection and karakia whakamutunga 12 min
Tirohanga Whānui | What this lesson is doing
This is a longer session than the others and it is worth protecting the time. The action itself is the smallest part of what is happening: students are testing whether the reasoning they built actually connects to the world.
Two things make or break the day. Roles assigned in advance, so nobody stands around; and evidence captured while the work happens, because it cannot be reconstructed afterwards. The reflection at the end is not a wind-down — it is where the unit's argument is finally stated by the students in their own words.
You'll need
- Evidence Capture Sheet — for the students assigned that role
- Reflection Sheet — one per student
- The posters from Lesson 5, ready to display
- Tools and materials for the chosen action, plus permissions confirmed and whānau invited
- Roles assigned and written up BEFORE the day: doers, evidence collectors, hosts for visitors
Welcome, roles and safety 10 min
What it is: The briefing that makes the rest of the day work.
Run it
- Welcome whānau and helpers (3 min). Students do this, not you. Assign it beforehand.
- Roles confirmed (4 min): read the list aloud. Every student should know which of the three groups they are in before anyone picks up a tool.
- Safety, specific to today's action (3 min): tools, footwear, where the boundaries are, what to do if something breaks or someone is hurt.
The evidence collectors need briefing separately — their job is to capture during, not after, and they will need reminding once the work starts and everyone wants to join in.
Karakia tīmatanga 5 min
What it is: Opening the work properly.
Run it
A student leads a karakia to open the mahi and acknowledge the whenua and the manu.
- If your kura has a karakia it uses for this kind of work, use that one.
- If a kaumātua or kaiwhakaruruhau is present, ask them beforehand whether they would prefer to lead it.
- If nobody in the room can lead one with confidence, say so honestly and ask your kura's te reo staff before the day rather than improvising on it.
Not a ceremony bolted on. The karakia marks that the class is about to act on a place rather than study it, and students generally take the work more seriously after it.
Act 2 — Do the mahi 40–60 min
What it is: The action itself — planting, building and installing, clearing, or putting up signage, depending on what the class chose in Lesson 4.
Run it
- Doers work in their groups. Rotate roles halfway if the task allows, so nobody spends the whole session on one job.
- Evidence collectors work throughout, using the Evidence Capture Sheet: before, during and after; who did what; one quote from a participant; one measurement or count where it applies.
- Hosts look after visitors — explaining what is happening and why, which is their poster's message delivered out loud.
Photograph the place, not the faces, unless you have current image permissions for every student in shot. A before-and-after of the site is the more useful evidence anyway, and it avoids a consent problem you do not need.
Act 3 — Gallery walk 15 min
What it is: The posters meet their real audience.
Run it
- Display and staff (3 min): posters up, each author near their own.
- Visitors and other students circulate (10 min). Authors give the thirty second version they rehearsed in Lesson 5.
- Collect one response each (2 min): every author writes down one thing a visitor said or asked about their poster.
The visitor question is the assessment signal. A poster that prompts a real question has communicated; one that produces only "that's nice" has not, and the author usually knows it.
Synthesise — What did we actually change? 12 min
Run it
- Return to the cause-and-effect chain (4 min): put the class's chosen chain back on the board. Students identify exactly which link today's action touched.
- The honest question (5 min): "What did we change, and what did we not?" Take answers. Most actions touch one link and leave the structural cause in place — that is worth naming plainly rather than glossing.
- What would tell us it worked (3 min): students propose how the class could find out. The answer is usually another five-minute count, months from now, at the same spot. That is a genuinely satisfying place to land.
Hands forward: this honest evaluation is exactly what the Lesson 7–9 assessment poster asks for — what a response achieves AND what it cannot solve. Students have now done it for real once.
Unit reflection and karakia whakamutunga 12 min
Run it
- Written reflection (9 min) on the
Reflection Sheet. Three questions:
- At the start of this unit I thought manu were ______. Now I think ______.
- The evidence that changed my mind was ______.
- One thing I could keep doing after this unit ends.
- Karakia whakamutunga (3 min) to close the mahi.
Reading these: the second question is the one that matters. A student who names a specific piece of their own evidence — their count, their interview, the empty mōrearea column on their map — has done the unit. A student who writes "the videos" has watched it.
Ngā Huarahi Ako | Differentiation
Tautoko / Support
- Assign a clear, bounded role — evidence collector with a checklist is often the best fit for a student who finds unstructured activity hard.
- Allow the reflection to be recorded as audio.
- Give the reflection questions the day before so there is thinking time.
Toitoi / Extension
- Write the follow-up plan: who checks this in six months, what they measure, and who they tell.
- Draft a short report for the board or the local paper, using the evidence capture sheet.
Te reo Māori
- Kupu: mahi (work), whenua (land), karakia tīmatanga / whakamutunga (opening / closing karakia).
- If whānau who speak te reo attend, invite them to speak first. Do not treat their presence as decoration for the day.
Mātauranga Māori | Doing, not describing
The unit has spent five lessons treating kaitiakitanga as an idea. Today it is a set of hands in the ground. That is the correct order, and it is worth saying to students: kaitiakitanga is not established by naming it.
The follow-up question matters here too. An obligation to a place does not end when the planting is finished — someone waters it, someone checks the traps, someone counts again next spring. Ask the class who that is going to be. The answer is allowed to be uncomfortable.
Hononga Marautanga | Curriculum
Explaining how humans benefit from other organisms and natural resources and evaluating the importance of biodiversity in daily life (e.g. using plants for food, water from rivers, wood for building)
Te Mātaiaho (2025) · Science · Phase 3 · Ecosystems · statement id 19820
The reflection is where students explain the benefit in their own terms, having spent six lessons finding out what it takes to keep it. The evaluation is deliberately honest rather than celebratory: they name which link of the chain their action touched and which one it left alone, and propose how anyone would know whether it worked.
Sources and checking
- Evidence for this lesson is the class's own: the capture sheet, the before-and-after of the site, and the visitors' responses. Keep it — the Lesson 7–9 assessment draws on it.
- Planting, trapping and site-safety guidance: DOC and your regional council, checked before the day rather than on it.