Activity

Māori knowledge of animals – crossword puzzles

Crossword puzzles are an engaging way to develop and use content vocabulary. This activity includes two different puzzles – the clues for both are in English, the answers for the first are in te reo Māori and the answers for the second are in English.

Blank crossword puzzle

Māori knowledge of animals crossword puzzle

Challenge your knowledge of animals in Aotearoa. The clues are in English but the answers are in te reo Māori!

Download the Word file (see the link on the web page below) for the complete crossword puzzle.

Rights: Georgina Tuari Stewart

In this activity, students use information from a range of resources to solve crossword puzzles featuring animals of Aotearoa.

By the end of this activity, students should be able to:

  • use literacy skills to locate information across a range of texts

  • use content vocabulary in te reo Māori and English.

Download the Word file (see link below).

Related content

The following resources provide brief introductions of Māori knowledge about a selected sample of animal species indigenous to Aotearoa:

Activity ideas

These activities are also literacy based and use the Māori knowledge of animals resources listed above:

Acknowledgement

This content has been developed in collaboration with Professor Georgina Tuari Stewart (Ngāti Kura, Ngāpuhi-nui-tonu, Pare Hauraki), Auckland University of Technology, and Dr Sally Birdsall, University of Auckland, with funding and support from the Ministry for Primary Industries – Manatū Ahu Matua and the Australian and New Zealand Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching (ANZCCART).

A silhouette with animals and DNA and two logos

Animals of Aotearoa and animal ethics

Animals of Aotearoa: Kaupapa Māori Summaries and Exploring the Three Rs of Animal Ethics with Māori Ideas were developed with funding from the Australian and New Zealand Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching (ANZCCART) and the Ministry for Primary Industries. The silhouette design was created for this project and is the copyright of Professor Georgina Tuari Stewart and Dr Sally Birdsall.

Rights: Georgina Stewart and Sally Birdsall, ANZCCART, MPI
Published: 10 September 2024Updated: 5 April 2024