Tupuānuku Discovery

📘 Curriculum Area

English – Level 1 (Years 1–2)
Aligned with the New Zealand Curriculum – Listening, Reading, and Viewing | Speaking, Writing, and Presenting
Focus: Idea development, using personal experiences and visual cues to create simple written texts

🗓️ Lesson 5 of 10 in the Unit: Matariki Writing Adventures

Lesson Title: Matariki Star: Tupuānuku
Duration: 45 minutes
Class Size: 30 Year 2 students

🎯 Learning Intentions

• I am learning to talk about the land and how it gives us food
• I am learning to write about my favourite food and where it comes from
• I am learning to use visuals to help me plan my writing

💡 Success Criteria

By the end of the lesson, students will:
✅ Talk about Tupuānuku and connect it to food and the land
✅ Create a short piece of writing about their favourite food and where it comes from
✅ Use gardening visuals to develop ideas

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🧠 Prior Knowledge

Students will have learned about Matariki and its significance in previous lessons. They understand Matariki is a cluster of stars and that each star has a special meaning. This lesson introduces Tupuānuku — the star connected with food from the earth.

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🪴 Te Ao Māori Connection

Tupuānuku reminds us to be grateful for the kai (food) that grows in Papatūānuku (the earth), and to take care of our gardens and whenua (land). Embedding this star into our writing adventure supports the integration of Mātauranga Māori and aligns with the Aotearoa New Zealand Histories and English curriculum.

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⏱️ Lesson Breakdown

1. Karakia + Brief Matariki Recap (5 minutes)

• Purpose: Welcome the class, reaffirm previous learning, and set the tone.
• Activity:
  • Perform a classroom karakia to begin the day.
  • Ask tamariki: “Who remembers one of the stars of Matariki we’ve already talked about?”
  • Introduce Tupuānuku using a large poster or digital visual.

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2. Story & Discussion – "From the Earth" (10 minutes)

• Resource: Teacher reads a picture book or shares a short, age-appropriate story (real or oral) about planting and harvesting in the māra kai (garden).
• Discussion Prompts:
  • What is Tupuānuku connected to?
  • Where do some of our favourite foods come from?
  • Has anyone grown something at home or school?
• Link to Curriculum: Developing oral language and connecting talking to ideas for writing.

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3. Visual Exploration – Gardening Table (10 minutes)

• Setup: Assorted gardening visuals placed on a table (fresh vegetables, seed packets, potted plants, gardening gloves, soil sample). These could also be presented through a slide deck or photos if items are not available.
• Activity:
  • In small groups (6 groups of 5), students rotate around the table, discussing what they see.
  • Teacher and TA (if available) circulate, prompting reflection:
    🔹 “Have you eaten this before?”
    🔹 “Where do you think it grows?”
    🔹 “Which food do you like best?”
• Differentiation: Visual aids will assist ELL students and those who find oral-to-written transfer challenging.

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4. Writing Activity – My Favourite Food (15 minutes)

Prompt: "Write about your favourite food and where it comes from."

• Instructions:
  • Students individually draw their favourite food at the top of their page.
  • Write 2–3 sentences (with support) underneath using scaffold starters:
    ✍️ “My favourite food is…”
    ✍️ “It comes from…”
    ✍️ “I eat it with…”
• Support and Differentiation:
  • Provide sentence starters and word cards with common foods and sources (e.g. garden, farm, tree).
  • Teacher and support staff to conference with targeted students needing extra support with spelling or ideas.
  • For early writers: Allow dictation or scribing support.
  • For writers ready for extension: Encourage a second paragraph – “How it tastes” or “Why I like it”.

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5. Sharing Circle – Kai Stories (5 minutes)

• Students sit in a circle and take turns sharing either:
  • What food they wrote about, OR
  • One interesting food they saw during the visual exploration.
• Use a soft object (e.g. pātītī/beanbag) to pass around the circle as a talk token.

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🧾 Resources Required

• Gardening visuals (realia or images): vegetables, seeds, potted plants
• Paper, pencils, colouring materials
• Māori-English picture book or story related to kai/gardening
• Word/picture cards for food-related vocabulary
• Poster or slide of Tupuānuku star and its meaning

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🌱 Vocabulary Focus

Māori	English
Tupuānuku	Star connected to food from the earth
Māra kai	Garden
Papatūānuku	Earth Mother
Kai	Food
Whenua	Land

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📘 Assessment for Learning

• Informal observations during visuals and sharing circle
• Collection of writing samples to check development of writing ideas and connections to personal experience
• Check that students are using sentence starters and forming simple ideas

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🤔 Teacher Reflection – After the Lesson

• Did students make the link between food and the land through Tupuānuku?
• Were the visuals engaging and useful for generating ideas?
• Did all learners feel they could participate?
• What writing support strategies worked for the wide range of abilities?

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🔄 Next Steps – Lesson 6

Explore Tupuārangi – the star connected to food from the skies like birds and fruit. Writing focus will shift to describing experiences with fruit picking or eating shared meals with whānau.

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“Tupuānuku nurtures what grows from the ground — when we write about kai, we write about our place.”