top of page

Ngā Aka - The Vines

ORIGINAL BI-LINGUAL NUMERACY, LITERACY & STORY COMPREHENSION SESSIONS

  • Instructive and Interactive.

  • Aligns with the Tūwharetoa Kāinga Rua education strategy.

  • Aligns with 4 strands of the Arts, Numeracy & Literacy curriculum.

NGĀ AKA - The Vines is a 4 stage program:

Whaitaima TeWhare & Jeffrey Addison with Flatsie puppets. Central Plateau NZ

Our Story

Te Whaitaima Te Whare is of Ngāti Te Kohera descent. Jeffrey Addison is of Kāi Tahu, Te Ātiawa, English, Irish and Scottish heritage.

Together, in 1995 we formed TORO PIKOPIKO PUPPETS, and have since created and toured 16 original puppet shows, produced a te reo māori radio drama series for children as well as a te reo māori puppet TV series called  'Toro Pikopiko E!' for Māori Television. 

 We have also developed and taught  'Number Haka' -a bi-lingual action learning numeracy program and a māori pronunciation course for adults called 'Whakarongo mai, Titiro mai, Korero mai'. From 2020 we have been making  musical audiobooks for children of adaptations from the last decade of our puppet shows. TORO PIKOPIKO TALES are now part of the Radio NZ collection of children’s audiobooks, and are broadcast  on their Sunday story hour.  We have woven together  four kinds of kinetic activities to support bi-lingual literacy and numeracy development called Ngā Aka - The Vines.

OUR VINES OF LEARNING

Ngaa Aka  Action Learning Activities Page 1.
Ngaa Aka Learning Activities Pg  2.
Ngaa Aka Learning Activities Vine #1.
Ngaa Aka - Action Learning Activities - Vine @2
Ngaa Aka - Action Learning Activities - Vine @3
Ngaa Aka - Action Learning Activities - Vine @4

Ngā Aka - The Vines

Ngaa Aka - Action Learning Activities

NUMBER HAKA -
Numeracy Dances

Te Aka Tuatahi – Vine # 1
NUMBER HAKA - A bi-lingual
action-learning activity, using
rhythm, repetition & movement
to help imbed the fundamentals
of numeracy. As a single group,
children follow the instructions
of the Kaiako Kanikani
(instructor), until they can make
up and dance their own simple
equations together, or on their
own.

Letterhead big book cover.

NGĀ MATA ORO -
Letter Head Literacy

Te Aka Tuarua- Vine # 2
THE LETTER HEADS/Ngā Mata Oro
– Phonetic Pronunciation and
spelling with Letter Head wands.
In four groups, participants make
up and practise the pronunciation
of te reo māori vowel and
consonant combinations then
collectively pronounce words and
phrases i te reo māori using Letter
Head wands.

Audiobooks cover #2

TORO PIKOPIKO TALES
Audiobook Series

Te Aka Tuatoru- Vine # 3
TORO PIKOPIKO TALES -
Children listen to our original
musical audiobook story series
called Toro Pikopiko Tales. Each
RNZ hosted audiobook story has
a contemporary take on
traditional māori legends.
Following each Te ao Māori story,
children are quizzed on what
they have heard.

Taylor-make your own classroom resources for your children from our menu of Kinesthetic Learning Activities.

bottom of page