New Zealand

Objective & content

This sheet on New Zealand starts from a video call: Toby, on a family holiday in New Zealand, calls his friend Isla at home in England. He has just arrived in Rotorua, with its geysers and mud pools, has been welcomed in a Maori village with a hongi, has visited the film set of The Lord of the Rings, and is flying to the South Island next week for a jet boat ride and a walk on a glacier. Pupils learn to describe a place and what you can do there. They answer six multiple-choice questions, write six words such as geyser, carving and glacier under pictures, match eight words such as steam, greeting and extreme sports with their meanings, complete eight sentences and make five adverbs with -ly, such as carefully and easily. The sheet ends with a word search of twenty words whose leftover letters spell a hidden message.

Pedagogical guide

The call carries the words of the topic, so pupils meet each one in context before working on it. Maori culture is shown with respect and as part of life today: a guide, Hemi, welcomes the family and shows them the meeting house; it is never a show of the past. In the picture task and in the sentences, two words in each box are extra, so pupils have to choose. The word-form task is the adverbs in -ly, worked here as word building with an example; warn pupils about the spelling changes (careful becomes carefully, easy becomes easily). In the word search, the words go across, down and diagonally, and the letters left over spell "KIA ORA MEANS HELLO". Every task tests words, never grammar.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Write "Aotearoa" on the board and ask what pupils know about New Zealand; give them the meaning only after the reading.
2. (10 min) Two pupils read the call aloud; the class answers the six questions.
3. (10 min) Pupils write the words under the six pictures, then match the eight words with their meanings.
4. (10 min) Pupils complete the eight sentences, then make the five adverbs with -ly.
5. (10 min) Pupils find the twenty words in the word search and write the hidden message.
6. (5 min) Check with the answer key on pages 4 and 5.

Adaptations

[S] Show a map of New Zealand: pupils find the two islands and the cities in the text before reading.

[A] Pupils plan a three-day trip to New Zealand and say what they want to do. To take it further, pupils find out about the haka and the Maori greeting and present them to the class.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy of the three pupil pages per pupil, in colour or in black and white. Pages 4 and 5 are the answer key: keep them. Pupils should know the past simple, the present perfect with just and ever, the present continuous for plans, and common adjectives.