Te rūrū rākau
Nā Tangihōro Fitzgerald
If worms could only speak, they would warn us that an upset tummy is what we get when we eat unripe fruit.
'Te rūrū rākau' story by Tangihōro Fitzgerald, with page numbers from He Kohikohinga 35.
| P.2 | Kei muri iho o tō rātou whare te rākau hua āporo a Mere mā. Ka taea e Mere te rūrū i te rākau kia wawā ai ngā āporo. He reka ki a Mere ngā āporo maoa. At the rear of Mere's family home is an apple tree. Mere can shake the tree to make the apples fall. Mere loves the sweet taste of ripe apples. |
| P.3 | Kei muri iho o tō rātou whare te rākau hua pea a Mere mā. Ka taea e Mere te rūrū i te rākau kia wawā ai ngā pea. He reka ki a Mere ngā pea maoa. At the rear of Mere’s family home is a pear tree. Mere can shake the tree to make the pears fall. Mere loves the sweet taste of ripe pears. |
| P.4 | Kei muri iho o tō rātou whare te rākau hua pītiti a Mere mā. Ka taea e Mere te rūrū i te rākau kia wawā ai ngā pītiti. He reka ki a Mere ngā pītiti maoa. At the rear of Mere’s family home is a peach tree. Mere can shake the tree to make the peaches fall. Mere loves the sweet taste of ripe peaches. |
| P.5 | He reka anō hoki ki te noke ngā hua torouka. And worm loves all fruit, especially unripe ones. |
Possible achievement objectives:
Science in the curriculum
Strand: Making sense of the living world
Level: 2
Achievement objectives
Students will:
- use differences and similarities in external characteristics to distinguish broad groups of living things
- investigate and understand the general functions of the main parts of plants e.g. seeds, roots, flowers.
Essential skills for assessment
Students will:
- show knowledge of the main parts of a flowering plant by labelling a diagram correctly (Information)
- show knowledge of the edible parts of a flowering plant by labelling a diagram correctly (Information).
Other curriculum areas:
The Arts: Drama
Strand: Exploration
Level: 3
Essential skills for assessment
Students will:
- produce an information chart identifying the sequence of movements in mau rākau, traditional weaponry (Information).
Activities to support the achievement objectives
1. Teacher directed
Read the story and ask these questions:
Organise the class into groups of six to survey each other's favourite fruits.
Tell them to show their results on a simple bar graph or pictograph. When explaining classification, students should be able to think critically about the differences between fruit and vegetables.
Draw a chart on the blackboard.
Display pictures of fruit and vegetables. Write on the chart as the students name the pictures:
| (sample) | Cabbage | Orange | Apple | Potato | Banana | Carrot | Pumpkin | Tomato |
| seeds |
|
|
|
| ||||
| skin | ||||||||
| juicy flesh | ||||||||
| eat raw | ||||||||
| eat cooked | ||||||||
| eat root | ||||||||
| eat tuber | ||||||||
| eat stalk | ||||||||
| eat leaf |
2. Teacher directed: Is it living or non-living? Group classification
Design template charts and hand a copy to each group. Groups will make another six card copies for each character picture.
Resources: pictures of a plant, fire, stars, book, television, animal, light bulb, fungi, heitiki.
Students brainstorm the following questions:
- How can you tell if something is alive?
- What is the difference between a living and a non-living thing?
- If something is not alive, is it dead?
Students group the pictures: 1. Living 2. Non-living
Paste one of the pictures on the chart.
Write a tick or a cross on the line opposite the characteristics column.
Here is an example:
| Picture |
| Characteristics |
|
| can change its position or move from place to place | |
|
| grows in size | |
|
| can detect changes in its environment | |
|
| produces offspring | |
|
| releases body waste | |
|
| makes or gets food | |
|
| uses oxygen to release energy from food |
Science fact: An ice cream is a non-living thing. The milk used in making the ice-cream comes from a living thing.
