Shared Cultural Threads

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📘 Curriculum Details

Learning Area: Social Sciences
Curriculum Level: Level 2
Year Level: Year 4–5
Strand: Understand how people pass on and sustain culture and heritage for different reasons and that this has consequences for people
Achievement Objective:
Students will describe how people make significant contributions to New Zealand’s society and culture, and reflect on similarities between cultural traditions over time.

Related Key Competencies:

• Thinking
• Relating to others
• Using language, symbols, and texts
• Participating and contributing

Values:

• Diversity
• Respect
• Community and participation
• Inquiry

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🎯 Learning Intentions

By the end of the lesson, students will:

• Understand how traditional Māori practices in hunting, gathering, and art relate to Stone Age cultural expressions.
• Identify similarities in materials, tools, and meanings between the two ancient cultures.
• Communicate their ideas respectfully during a group discussion on cultural heritage and its relevance today.

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✅ Success Criteria

Students will be successful when they can:

• Describe at least two similarities between Māori and Stone Age practices.
• Share thoughtful reflections on the importance of cultural heritage.
• Participate respectfully in a small group discussion.

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🧠 Prior Knowledge Required

Students should have completed the first four lessons of the unit:

• Basic understanding of Stone Age life: tools, hunting methods, cave painting.
• Introduction to Māori traditions, including mātauranga Māori perspectives on the environment, food gathering (mahinga kai), and traditional arts (rāranga, whakairo).
• Recognise the importance of oral histories and symbolic expressions in both cultures.

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⏰ Duration: 45 Minutes

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🪧 Materials Required

• Chart paper or large Post-it pads
• Printed Māori and Stone Age artefact images (tools, rock paintings, carvings)
• Whiteboard and markers
• Printable “Then & Now: Culture Connector” graphic organiser
• Small tāonga (cultural objects) or natural resources (like flax, shells, or stones - real or images)
• Sticky notes
• Projector or visual slides for artefact comparison
• Māori terms cheat sheet for students (simple glossary: e.g. taonga, mātauranga, whakairo, rāranga)

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📌 Lesson Breakdown

⏳ 0–5 min | Mihi & Whanaungatanga (Connection)

• Welcome students with a brief karakia timatanga
• Quick recap of last lesson: “Raise your hand if you remember anything about the cave art we studied in the last lesson. What was it made from? What did it mean?”
• Introduce today's big question (write on board):
  "How are Māori traditions like those from Stone Age cultures?"

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⏳ 5–15 min | Visual Comparison & Group Observations

Activity: Artefact Explorer – Spot the Connection

1. Show a projected slideshow comparing:

   • Māori carving (whakairo) vs. Stone Age cave art
   • Māori taiaha vs. Stone spears
   • Māori woven kete vs. reed baskets from the Stone Age

2. In triads, students get a printed "Then & Now: Culture Connector" graphic organiser.
   They choose two pairs of artefacts and fill in:

   • What is it?
   • What was it used for?
   • What’s similar?
   • How do they express culture?

Support for ākonga:
Ensure picture clues are clearly labelled. Use visual cues and offer sentence starters referenced from prior sessions.

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⏳ 15–25 min | Guided Discussion & Vocabulary Building

Activity: Ko te kupu o te rā – Word of the Day

• Introduce 2–3 key Māori concepts (taonga, whakairo, mātauranga) and write on board.
• Discuss their meanings and how they reflect both cultural identity and continuity over time.

Prompt Questions:

• Why do people create symbols and artworks to tell their stories?
• Do you think Māori art and Stone Age art tell us similar things about people’s lives?

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⏳ 25–35 min | Think-Pair-Share Presentations

Activity: Kōrero Tahi – Then and Now Speakers Circle

1. Students partner up and share 1–2 things from their organiser.
2. Invite 4–5 volunteers to stand in the special “Speaker’s Circle” (centre of the room) and share something they learned with the class – encourage use of new vocabulary.
3. Encourage classmates to ask questions or add connecting ideas.

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⏳ 35–42 min | Class Whāriki: Our Heritage Wall

Activity: Heritage Wall with Sticky Notes

• Students each write one answer to the question:
  "Why is it important to keep our culture and stories alive?"
  Option to write in English or Te Reo Māori.
• Post on the “Whāriki o Mua” (Tapestry of the Past) classroom display wall.
• Teacher reads out a few anonymous responses aloud to spark reflection.

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⏳ 42–45 min | Reflection & Karakia Whakamutunga

Wrap Up:

• “What was one thing that surprised or interested you today?”
• Share one taonga or tradition from your own family or culture with a partner.
• Close with a short karakia whakamutunga or moment of gratitude for the learning journey across time and cultures.

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📒 Differentiation & Support

• ESOL support: Provide visual and written vocabulary supports.
• Neurodiverse learners: Use visual timetables and provide individual graphic organisers.
• Extension: Students create a comparison mini-poster of another pair of cultures showing similar tools/art (e.g., Pacific navigation vs. Viking ships).

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🎓 Assessment for Learning

Formative:

• Observations during group discussions
• Student graphic organisers
• Participation in “Speaker's Circle”
• Reflection sticky note contribution

Teacher takes anecdotal notes or uses a simple checklist focusing on:

• Understanding of concepts
• Ability to make connections
• Engagement in sharing ideas

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🧭 Looking Ahead / Connected Curriculum

This final lesson wraps up the Stone Age Explorations: Culture & Art unit. Suggested next steps:

• Transition into a local history inquiry focusing on iwi/hapū connections to land.
• Begin a visual art project inspired by traditional Māori motifs or storytelling through symbols.
• Integrate with literacy – students write a fictional story imagining a person travelling between Stone Age times and Aotearoa’s early Māori settlements.

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"Ko te ahurei o te tamaiti ārahia o tātou mahi."
Let the uniqueness of the child guide our work.

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Prepared for the New Zealand Curriculum | Level 2 | Te Marautanga o Aotearoa aligned