Lesson Ideas Bank

Ākonga are tasked with writing a short, one minute play to perform as a group or individual. Choose a topic or prompt to get them started.

Draw a map that illustrates what the Polynesian explorers would have seen when they found Aotearoa. Include any landmarks, dangers, and areas of importance. 

Ākonga research a moment such as the troops leaving Aotearoa for war, or an historical battle, to create a miniature mobile model. Focus on telling a visual story through details and characterisation.

Each student writes the first 3 letters of their surname on a piece of paper that they can hold up. Teams work against the clock to order everyone in alphabetical order.

Draw inspiration from the book 'Animalia' by Graham Base. Each student is tasked to create an alliteration poem for their letter. Ākonga can illustrate their page and collaborate to create a class book.

Atua, by Gavin Bishop, is a large format, sophisticated picture book and the perfect way to start engaging with the rich and fascinating lore of Māori people and Aotearoa New Zealand. 

Ākonga learn about the Māori Atua and choose one to focus on. Students are then tasked with exploring the school and capturing a photograph that symbolises their Atua.

Ākonga can partake in research by completing a bird count of an area. Learn about the wildlife nearby and the importance of monitoring numbers for conservation.  Check out the helpful bird count website here.

Taking inspriation from the work of New Zealand artist WD Hammond, have each student create their own bird person for a wall display. Ākonga can choose a New Zealand bird as their head and hold objects in their art that mean something to them.

Blender is a sophisticated, free, 3d modelling software available online. This is a step up from Tinkercad and perfect for students who are looking to expand their skills.

Create a new book cover for a novel you have read or are studying. Integrate symbolism and imagery that would entice a reader to pick your book up and read it.

Create a poster to advertise a book you have finished recently and would recommend to others. Who is your audience and how can you capture their interest? What imagery and symbolism can you use to indicate what type of story it is?

Put a whole raw egg in a glass of vinegar and leave for 7 days. Take the egg out and drop it into a bowl. The egg bounces! The vinegar, which is an acid, reacts with the calcium carbonate of the eggshell making it go soft. This is known as decalcification.

Coded messages were crucial during the world wars in keeping soldiers safe. Using a key, create a secret code and send messages to other teams in your class. To make things more difficult, remove some of the letters from your key and see if the code can be broken.

Create a poem that explores the 5 senses through colour. How does blue taste? What does red smell like?

Using found objects such as sponges, fabric, and wire, students can create their own under water coral sculptures based on the work of Madeliene Child and Philip Jarvis.

Write directions for another team to follow and see if they can find their way to the final destination.

Pour half a glass of lemon juice, vinegar, and water. Put a piece of chalk in each glass and leave for a few days. The chalk will dissolve in the vinegar and lemon juice. This is a good representation of what can happen to rocks over time when hit with acidic rain.

Decorate a white t-shirt with bright coloured paint to celebrate Diwali, the festival of light. It is a festival of colour, joy, and happiness and one of the biggest traditional festivals in India. Older children could try tie dye.

Groups of students create their own political party. They need to choose leaders and policy. They can create visuals to display in the classroom and around the school and can enact an MMP election.

Perfect activity for Halloween! Write a funny poem that details the quirky way you died.

Choose a topic for your ākonga to focus on. They need to plan and photograph their composition and write a riddle challenge for their page.

The Figure it Out series of books are printed in full colour and contain interesting, level specific content. The answer booklets contain a breakdown of the methods to assist teachers. These books work well for group work and most schools will have physical copies available.

Children stand in a line behind the teacher who leads the way. The teacher does a simple task and each child in the line has to copy. Try taking turns leading the line.

The Google Arts and Culture website includes virtual tours and games. A huge resource catalogue with different themes and activities

Hang some green or blue fabric on the wall and use iMovie or a green screen application to create imaginative films. Ākonga can make their own news broadcasts or re-enact scenes.

Decide on some simple class issues and cast your vote to decide on the outcome. Learn about the democratic process and the power of voting.

Learn about timelines by creating a short personal one first before starting on a larger, class project. Ākonga can work in teams or as a class to delegate sections of time, or focus on one significant event each.

Inside a box, hang a bee model from a string. On the bee and on the bottom of the box will be two magnets with the same poles facing, repelling each other, and causing the bee to hover.

Learn about cyber safety by embarking on an internet adventure through Interland, with cute characters and surreal landscapes.

Cover a few leaves of an indoor plant with black paper to prevent the leaf from getting any sunlight. After 7 days, uncover the leaf. The leaf will be less green compared to the rest of the plant because no chlorophyl can be created without sunlight.

Khan Academy provides free lessons and instructionals to help you understand mathematical concepts.

A free app that allows users to take a photo which will then translate the object into te reo Māori.

The Kuwi and Friends Māori Picture Dictionary (He Papakupu Whakaahua) is a fun, easy-to-use resource for those wanting to discover, learn and use everyday words in te reo Māori. The illustrations are designed to help with comprehension, particularly for younger learners.

Visit the library and create a map that would help a reader locate a book. Where is the issue desk, the picture books, the chapter books, subjects etc.?

You will need a bucket, a rope, and a ball. Hold the bucket with the ball inside at the end of the rope and whirl it around in a large circle. The ball will stay in the bucket, even when it is upside down. This is due to the centrifugal force pulling the ball against the sides of the bucket, preventing it from falling out.

Create a sloped piece of cardboard to be your mountain. The skier on the mountain has paper clips on their skis. Underneath the cardboard, use a magnet to move the skier down the slope!

Using unflavoured gelatin, heat up mixtures in a saucepan. Tip the mixture into a thin tray and leave to cool. You have made an elastic gel. Gelatin dissolves in water and makes a semi-solid mass when it cools. Cut shapes from your gelatin moulds and use them in mobile displays of the solar system.

Explore the concept of density by using containers filled with water. Add different amounts of salt to some of the containers and see if you can get an egg to float.

Collect items from the natural world such as pine cones, feathers, shells, coconut shells etc. Allow children opportunites to explore items and learn about ordering, texture, shape and colours.

Create Matariki Whetū by weaving flax or paper. A fun way to practice Māori and celebrate Matariki.

Using a thermometer, measure temperatures in the class room like behind the t.v, the warm water from the tap, outside and inside temperatures etc.

Draw out the height of some of Aotearoa's giant birds such as moa and haast eagle.

Make play dough, slime, or finger paint. Include tools that could create interesting patterns with things like bristles or indents for children to explore.

Metroplitan Museum of Art MetKids website includes an interactive map and time machine. A detailed and child orientated web page with an interesting search and find image.

The Movewell website is a useful resource full of physical activities and games that are relevant to Aotearoa New Zealand children.

The Museum of the World interactive history timeline explores the British Museum’s collection. A beautifully designed, interactive site with a timeline to explore objects in the collection and colour coded to the continent of origin.

Find your way to the tribal marae of Aotearoa New Zealand with information and photographs through the digital gateway of Māori Maps.

The New Zealand Film Commission website hosts a collection of New Zealand short and feature films with an on demand service.

NZMaths is full of lessons structured by curriculum area and level.

The National Geographic MapMaker is a useful tool for visualising infrormation such as rainfall and animal migrations. You can also create your own personalised map.

By Helen Lloyd. A useful book filled with relevant art activities that can easily be translated into lesson plans.

Use playdough to layout an array of scones on a baking tray so that they are in equal rows and equal columns. Find all the different ways to lay out the scones.

Using an online website builder such as Google Sites, Wix, or Squarespace, guide ākonga in creating their own personal website. It can feature their work, special events from the year, or their favourite things.

Oval ball skills. Divide the class into groups. Each group makes a circle and the person with the ball runs into the middle of the circle and throws the rugby ball in the air. The next person in the circle runs in to catch it. Play continues around the circle and the aim is to not let the ball touch the ground.

Use visual language and symbolism to design a set of postage stamps with a consistent theme that communicate an important idea to the public.

Create stamps out of foam and old milk bottle lids and use them to create repeating patterns.

Choose a product to research such as cereal. Look at packaging examples and the imagery that is used to target specific audiences. Have a turn at inventing your own product and design some packaging.

Find a school issue and stage a peaceful protest. How might you have the most impact and ensure your message is heard? Now investigate the history of protest in Aotearoa such as Parihaka, the Rainbow Warrior, and the Sprinbok Tour. What were the outcomes of these protests? What can we learn about getting our voices heard?

Create a short film that educates young people about something you have learned during the puberty topic.

You could use puppets to share and retell stories with children, or collect a range of materials and children could create their own puppets.

Provide an image prompt to the class such as a picture of a person or scene. Ākonga can write a creative or discriptive piece of writing.

Choose a significant historical event to re-enact. Ākonga can perform throughout the school or make a movie to share their historical moment.

Explore New Zealand science resources at the Science Learning Hub website.

Scratch and Scratch Junior are kid friendly, online coding programes that introduce children to basic coding scripts. Kids can create short animations or simple games. 

Explore and learn about the sculptures in your local area. Be inspired to create your own sculpture out of found materials.

Fill zip lock bags with textures, liquids, and items such as jelly, soft beads, cooked pasta, shaving foam, or paint, and tape all the edges to the floor. Let ākonga explore the strange bags!

Gather objects from the room. Have ākonga sort the objects based on whether they think they will sink or float. Test out their theories in a container of water.

Large ball skills. Normal tag rules apply. The person who is in is in charge of a soccer ball and has to tag another player by hitting them with the ball. Once another person is hit, they join the tag team. Modify by adding more balls.

Take a walk around the school and identify some problems that could be solved. Design a product or system that could solve your problem.

Create a soundscape using different instruments that could accompany a story.

Create your own stat cards, but for every stat, there is an equation.  Pick a theme like native birds of New Zealand, famous sports people,  or towns and cities of new zealand. Ideas for statistics could be population, age, size, etc. Battle other students for who has the lowest or the highest stat.

Create your own story cubes (dice with different symbols on each side such as a key, house, tree, moon, alien, sword etc.) or write random prompts or images onto cards. Roll the dice or draw out 2-3 prompts and give an allocated time for ākonga to write a piece of creative writing. 

Create a powerful collection of visuals that educate the public about how to keep safe during summer. Ideas could include swim safe signage for rivers and beaches, public service announcements about sun safety, posters, and brochures.

Large ball skills. Each student has a soccer ball inside a marked zone. Students dribble their ball around the zone  and try to kick other students balls out, while keeping their own in. The last player to survive, wins!

Te Tai Treaty Settlement Stories is a website aimed at increasing understanding of the past by exploring Treaty settlements and their enduring impact.

Provide images of Māori and pākehā people meeting for the first time. Ākonga are tasked with creating a story about one of the images. Can they imagine how each character might have felt? Use imagination to decide what happens next.

Using a weather website, find the hottest and coldest temperatures recorded today. Compare and find the difference in temperatures.

The Archives hold thousands of significant founding documents and is a great resource for older students who are conducting research.

The Literacy Shed aims to provide teachers with high quality films and animations that can be used in the primary classroom to enhance the teaching of reading and writing.

Tinkercad is online software that allows students to create 3d models and coding. It is easy to use and has tutorials in built to help you and the students learn how to use it. It could be used to prototype designs.

The same rules as normal dodge ball but played in a large circle with taggers on the outside. Every few minutes the game freezes and taggers pick up the circle markers and move them in one step. The circle continues to decrease in size as the game continues.

The Waitangi Educational Resources site provides digital resources and inquiry plans to help you teach about Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Fill a jar with coloured water and keep one empty. Roll a paper towel into a tube and put one end into the coloured water and one into the empty cup. The paper towel will soak up a large quantity of water. You can link up different colour jars and paper towels to see the affect. This acts like the intestines which can soak up water due to the makeup of the cells and the available surface area.

Plot the journey of your whānau onto a map and share your arrival story with your classmates.

Investigate what wild animals are around your school or home at night by placing white cards outside. Students will learn about animal habitats and environments. You may be lucky enough to find tracks on the cards the next day. Ākonga can then work to try and identify the tracks.

Create artwork for cards that can be given out to the community to show our appreciation and express kindness.