Kath's Korner

Early New Zealand History Unit

This is a work in progress for our family.

Note: These are notes taken on what our family hopes to cover during this unit study and ideas, questions, and activities that we have done. I have put this web page up so that it might give others ideas or simply a starting point to thinking about orgainizing their own unit. It is simply a guide, take what you need from it and discard the rest by all means! If you don't agree with how we have covered the history, then change it for your own family.

I have tried not to mention any books or websites etc. that are needed as I realize they can be awkward to get hold of. In fact most good NZ history books will cover the basics. I will mention books that I thought were useful and that we used, but they are not necessary.

Topics to be covered are as follows:

Pre-Civilization

Gondwanaland - Trace a map on Gondwanaland and label it. Note how isolated New Zealand was after splitting away.

Volcanoes and Earthquakes - These were very important in shaping New Zealand's landforms. You could do a mini unit study on these alone. Activities that we done are:

1 - Made a volcano in the sand pit. (Yes it is something that a lot of kids will have learnt in Playcentre and the such, but even the older kids enjoy doing this!) Shape the sand into a volcanoe shape with a hole in the top to put a small container. Mix together vinegar and red food colouring and place in the small container inside the volcanoe. Lastly add baking soda and watch the volcanoe explode!

2 - Look on a map of New Zealand to find volcanoes. Are they extinct or are they still active?

3 - Look at the map to see how earthquakes forced up the land to make mountain ranges, very obvious in the South Island.

Imagine how New Zealand would have looked at this time. It is important to note that there were no mammals in New Zealand, so this meant there were a lot of birds and trees.

Maori

Questions to answer

1 - How do we know about the first New Zealanders?

2 - How did the Maori's arrive here?

3 - What did they bring with them?

4 - What did they eat in New Zealand?

5 - What were their tools made of?

6 - What does Aotearoa, whanau, iwi, tapu, kaumatua, whare, and pa mean?

Activities

1 - Read the stories of Kupe's discovery of Aotearoa and the Myths of Maui and the Fish.

2 - Talk about how we learnt about early maori history from excavations. Look up the following words in the dictionary and write down the words and their meanings.

extinct, excavation, archaelogist, geologist, botanist, anthropologist, zoologist, and fossils.

3 - Find up picture of the moa bird. Note the bird is extinct but bones have been excavated in parts of New Zealand.

  Useful links

New Zealand Time Line

Abel Tasman

Captain Cook Unit Study

Whaling In Early New Zealand - illustrated article by Antony Flude

The Treaty of Waitangi - see a picture of the Treaty Document and there is also a link to the transcripts. (Maori and English).

The Trail of Waitangi - Contains eye-witness accounts.

The New Zealand Wars

Gold Strike!  Prospecting for Gold in the 1860's Illustrated article by Antony Flude

Heroes of New Zealand - Information about Famous New Zealanders.

The New Zealand National Anthem  - English and Maori lyrics.

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