Daily food record
Get the students to keep a daily record for a week of what they have brought to eat at morning break, depicting this visually on a chart. Older students could write their own descriptors beside their drawings, whereas younger ones will probably need to dictate theirs to you. Words, phrases, or whole sentences can be recorded, depending on the students’ stage of learning.
To begin with, a student might just record something such as the following beneath their drawings. (Though English translations are included here to assist you, get the students to record only in te reo Māori.)
| Mane | Tūrei | Wenerei | Tāite | Paraire |
| he āporo (an apple) | he panana (a banana) | he pihikete (some biscuits) | he paramu (some plums) | he hanawiti (a sandwich) |
Later on, this might progress as follows:
Language tip
Note that “he” can mean “a” or “some”.
| Mane | Tūrei | Wenerei | Tāite | Paraire |
| He āporo kei roto i taku pouaka-kai. (There’s an apple in my lunchbox.) | He panana kei roto i taku pouaka-kai. (There’s a banana in my lunchbox.) | He pihikete kei roto i taku pouaka-kai. (There are some biscuits in my lunchbox.) | He paramu kei roto i taku pouaka-kai . (There are some plums in my lunchbox.) | He hanawiti kei roto i taku pouaka-kai. (There’s a sandwich in my lunchbox.) |
An engaging stimulus for this task is the reomation Te wā kai (Lunchtime).