📚 Unit Plans → 🌍 Unit 12: Ngā Manu o te Taiao — Local Birds & Habitats → 📖 Unit 12 Week 3: Habitats & Impacts
Years 4–6 Pūtaiao / Science

Years 4–6 pitch · Lesson 3: Habitats & Impacts

Students investigate the fundamental needs of birds and the human-driven threats to their survival. They use cause-and-effect mapping and community...

Years 4–6 pitch · Lesson 3

Years 4–6: what does this manu need?

Ākonga link each manu to the habitat features it needs, and name one thing that makes life harder for it.

  • Years 4–6 move: Manu matched to habitat need
  • Evidence it produces: A need and a threat, both named for one bird
Same topic, Year 7 pitch →Same topic, Years 7–8 band, a shorter route →

Before you plan from this: Te Kete Ako carries three routes through this kaupapa, not two. The lesson body below is currently near-identical to the Year 7 route’s — this panel describes the intended difference between those two, which is not authored yet, so choose between them on year band rather than on this pitch. The third route sits at the Years 7–8 band and is genuinely different in shape: its lessons are noticeably shorter, around half the length of these. All three are kept; none is being retired.

Unit 12 · Week 3

🌳 Week 3: Habitats & Impacts

Students investigate the fundamental needs of birds and the human-driven threats to their survival. They use cause-and-effect mapping and community interviews to deepen their understanding.

Focus Question

What do manu need to thrive, and what is stopping them in our area?

🎯 Learning Intentions

  • Identify the four core needs of manu (food, shelter, water, safety)
  • Analyse human impacts on local habitats using cause-effect logic
  • Gather community perspectives through kaitiaki interviews

✅ Success Criteria

  • I can complete a cause-effect-action chain for one threat
  • I can record a usable quote from an interview
  • I can explain two ways humans impact manu habitats

🗣️ Kupu / Vocabulary

  • predator, invasive
  • habitat loss, restoration
  • cause/effect

📚 Curriculum Links

  • Science: Living World (Ecology)
  • Social Science: Continuity & Change
  • English: Listening & Speaking

🎥 Media Anchor (8 mins)

Media Anchor: Habitat Pressures and Restoration

Watch: Use the clip to identify real habitat pressures and the restoration choices made in Aotearoa.

  • Name one habitat pressure shown and its likely impact on manu populations.
  • What restoration strategy from the clip could be applied around your kura?

Ngā Mahi - Week 3 Activities

1. Sorting Needs & Threats (15 mins)

Activity: A quick visual sort. Display photos of varied environmental features and have students categorise them as "Habitats" (Needs) or "Hazards" (Threats).

  • Needs: Berry trees, clean water, dense nesting shrubs
  • Threats: Litter, predators (rats/cats), habitat fragmentation, urban noise
  • Discussion: "How does one threat lead to multiple problems for a bird?"

2. Cause → Effect → Action (25 mins)

Activity: Pairs work through the Cause/Effect Organiser. They pick one major threat (e.g., lack of food) and trace it back to a cause and forward to an action.

  • Pick a threat: Litter in the school garden
  • Analyse: Why is it there? What does it do to the manu?
  • Brainstorm: What is one realistic action a Year 4-6 student could take?
Kaiako Tip: Encourage students to think about 'cascading effects'—if there's no shelter, the bird is more vulnerable to predators AND weather.

3. Voices of Kaitiaki: Interview Prep (15 mins)

Activity: Students prepare to gather "expert" testimony using the Interview Prompts. This can be done with an invited guest or as a homework task.

  • Practice: Roleplay interviewing a whānau member or local kaitiaki
  • Success check: Ensure students know how to record a direct quote correctly
  • Reflection: "Why is it important to include community voices in our reports?"

💡 Differentiation Strategies

  • scaffold support: Use a 'Word Bank' for the cause/effect sheets; provide a pre-written interview script
  • Support: Have a shared class interview with a guest speaker where students take notes on the board
  • Extension: Research a specific predator (stoat or rat) and find a local trapping program to map its progress

📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot

Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions

Students will investigate the ecological roles of ngā manu o te taiao — the birds of the natural world — within local habitats, drawing on both science and mātauranga Māori to understand why native birds are taonga and what kaitiakitanga requires of us in their protection.

Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria

Assess this week against its own criteria above. The unit-wide criteria live once on the unit overview — they are not repeated here, so nobody marks the week against the wrong list.

Differentiation & Inclusion

Scaffold support: A habitat card showing one manu and three things it needs, with one need blanked for ākonga to supply. Extension: map where those needs exist near school.

ELL / ESOL: Habitat words (shelter, food, nesting, predator) taught against photographs of the local place first.

Inclusion: Predators are the honest content here, and some ākonga have pets that are predators. Discuss the effect, not anyone's cat by name.

Mātauranga Māori lens: If manu are tohu, a decline is a message about the habitat, not just about the birds. That reframes this week's question from 'what is killing them' to 'what has changed here' — which is a wider and more answerable question for ākonga.

Prior knowledge: Best used after introductory ecology concepts. Connects well to science food webs and biodiversity units.