Whangārei school kids speaking more te reo

Morningside School students Rusiate Temocama, Harmony Lewis Mangu and Arleo Bray-Wikaire perform the pukana.

Morningside School tamariki embraced Māori Language Week/Te Wiki o te Reo Māori this week with teachers and parents noticing an increase in the language at the school crossing and around dinner tables.

Teacher Susan Uffindell, aka Whaea Sue, said the school had a busy week of celebrations.

Morningside School students singing waiata together during whakawhanaungatanga-buddy class.

"The tamariki have embraced the kaupapa (purpose) of the week. They're always excited to practise and show off what they already know, and love adding more knowledge to their kete (basket).

"And our kaiako (teachers) love to hear how this extra push means more reo Māori being used crossing the road before school, at the dinner table and even some new kupu (vocabulary) for some whanau."

Morningside School students and staff kicked off the week participating in the Māori language moment which was celebrated at midday Monday nationwide.

They also sang waiata, met and shared a kōrero (conversation) with the school kaumatua (Māori elder) and put out a challenge of how they could kia kaha te reo Māori – this year's theme to be strong in Māori.

"We also had whakawhanaungatanga (making connections)-buddy class where we mix the classes up for the rest of the day where we used some of our favourite pukapuka (books) which have been translated into reo Māori to learn some new kupu (words) and phrases to use."

Morningside School student Nixson Keogh gets a ta moko during this week's events.

In addition, children enjoyed ta moko tattooing, performing the haka and kapahaka, Māori quizzes, gardening, learning ukulele, and coding clubs all in reo Māori.

Uffindell said the children had been striving to use lots of Māori language around school with prize vouchers handed out at school assembly yesterday.