Huarākau

An active, fun, team game which also extends your students’ knowledge of te reo Māori. This is a game that should connect and energise tamariki.

Watch that tamariki are only jumping over each other’s legs in this game. But if that’s not right for you or your tamariki, have tamariki tuck their legs in as their classmate jumps their way up the central line.

Create two lines, so tamariki are sitting facing each other in pairs with their feet touching – with about 30cm between each pair in the line – so that tamariki can jump between them. Each line is a team.

Assign each pair the name of a fruit in te reo (assigning two pairs the same fruit, if needed): Āporo (apple), Panana (banana), Paināporo (pineapple), Huakiwi (kiwifruit), Ārani (orange), Rēmana (lemon), Kerepe (grape), Rōpere (strawberry), Rahipere (raspberry).

When you call the name of a fruit, the pairs assigned that name must stand up and jump over the legs of each of the pairs to their right until they get to the end, where they’ll race around the outside of the students to the beginning of the line, so they can jump over all remaining pairs, to get back to their spot. Whichever person sits first wins a point for their team (line).

After each go, ask what the te reo and English names for that fruit are, to help embed the learning.

Help tamariki learn other te reo words by changing the names of the pairs to:

• Ngā rā o te wiki (days of the week) – Rāhina (Mon), Rātū (Tues), Rāapa (Weds), Rāpare (Thurs), Rāmere (Fri), Rāhoroi (Sat), Rātapu (Sun).
• Months of the year – Kohitātea, Hui-tanguru, Paenga-whāwhā, Haratua, Pipiri, Hōngongoi, Here-turi-kōkā, Mahuru, Whiringa-ā-nuku, Whiringa-ā-rangi, Hakihea
• Animals e.g. ngeru (cat), kurī (dog), karakotaera (crocodile), hepara (zebra), hōiho (horse), heihei (chicken), ika (fish)

If you’re enjoying traditional Māori games and activities, head here to see all our other awesome cultural activities.

Warmest thanks to Haeata Community Campus for suggesting this activity. We so appreciate your mahi and all it brings to Sparklers. Many times, ngā mihi.