Our education programmes are designed to enhance your units of learning and bring them to life. The programmes have been developed in consultation with education agencies and follow the mainstream curriculum documents. They cover all learning areas and key compentencies, and are developed to fit with achievement objectives. They incorporate bicultural learning objectives, and most can be offered in either English or te reo Māori.
All programmes last for 90 minutes, but may be adapted to fit your needs. They incorporate suggestions for pre-visit and post-visit activities.
Introductory programme
Tumeke Te Papa! Introducing Te Papa
For years 0 -10. Levels of achievement 1-5.
Our popular introductory programme for schools. Get to know what's in Te Papa. Explore the amazing features of New Zealand's landscape, and discover what makes its people special. Tumeke Te Papa! ensures that your students have a good look at Te Papa and a great time doing it. We can also adapt this programme to suit your school's specific interests.
Highlights include:
The Colossal Squid, OurSpace, The Earthquake House, Te Marae and much more!
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Curriculum-linked programmes
The Arts | Ngā Toi @ Te Papa
Mahi Toi | Making Art - Developing Toi Te Papa Art of a Nation
For years 0 - 10. Levels of achievement 1 - 5
This programme encourages students to have a personal response to the artwork on display. They will be required to select artworks that appeal to them and demonstrate the reasons why. It also involves an art-making component. Art-making workshops are a successful way of reinforcing learning, and they also enable students to develop ideas through observation, imagination, and invention with materials. A range of artists will be used as the source of motivation.
Visit the Toi Te Papa Art of a Nation mini-site
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Kahu Toi - The Art of Cloaks
For years 0 -10. Levels of achievement 1-5.
Investigate cloak design, both traditional and contemporary. Students can compare Māori, European, and Pacific cloak-making traditions and the depiction of cloaks in other art forms. A workshop then enables them to design their own cloak, inspired by what they have seen.
See cloaks from our collection
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Picturing Ourselves - The Art of Portraiture and Print-Making
For years 0 -10. Levels of achievement 1-5.
Examine the work of specific artists to understand how different cultures approach portraiture and how this has changed over time. As a practical expression of their understanding, students then experiment with print-making and produce their own portrait based on the work of New Zealand artists.
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Social Studies | Tikanga-a-Iwi @ Te Papa
Disasters
For years 4-10. Levels of achievement 2-5.
Do you know what to do when a disaster strikes? This education programme teaches students the causes, effects and outcomes that have resulted from many of New Zealand's disasters. Students will develop an understanding of disasters and how to best prepare in the eventuality that disaster strikes them and their family.
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Vaka Tales - Pasifika Journeys
For years 4-10. Levels of achievement 2-5.
Bring your Social Studies programme to life with this education programme exploring the stories of the epic voyages and awesome human experiences of long range traditional voyaging in the Pacific Ocean. Your students will learn about the motivations, challenges, equipment and knowledge acquired by Polynesian voyagers that allowed them to explore the vast Pacific with confidence.
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Ceremonies and Celebrations
For years 0 –8, Levels of achievement 1–4
Explore a range of celebrations and ceremonies from different cultures, including those originating from the Pacific Islands and Scotland. Discover how people express their cultural identity and investigate the meaning behind some of the symbols, texts, and language used in these customs. Students will explore and touch objects related to a variety of ceremonies, followed by an art activity.
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Tangata Tiriti - Peopling Aotearoa New Zealand
For years 0 -10. Levels of achievement 1-5.
Discover the stories of the peoples who have come to Aotearoa New Zealand by right of the Treaty of Waitangi - te tangata tiriti. Find out about the amazing experiences of early European immigrants to New Zealand and of more recent immigrants from all over the world. Investigate what motivated people to come to this country, the journeys they made to get here, what life was like when they arrived, and the contribution that each group of people has made to this country.
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Tangata Whenua - Peopling Aotearoa New Zealand
For years 0 -10. Levels of achievement 1-5.
Learn about Māori migration to Aotearoa New Zealand from the Pacific. Explore what life was like for the tangata whenua (original people) before European contact. Discover how life changed with the arrival of European settlers and the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.
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Te Marae @ Te Papa
For years 0 - 11. Levels of achievement 1 - 6
Enhance your students' interaction with Te Ao Māori (the Māori world) through our fun new education programme Te Marae @ Te Papa, which utilises games, songs, and te reo Māori. Students will learn about pōwhiri (welcoming ceremonies), pepeha (genealogical descriptors), Māori design, wharenui (meeting houses), and pūrākau (stories).
More about Te Marae
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The Treaty of Waitangi | Te Tiriti o Waitangi
For years 4 - 10. Levels of achievement 4 -6.
Experience the debate about the Treaty of Waitangi, view Te Papa's massive eight-metre high reproduction of the Treaty, and find out how the Treaty applies today through the perspective of the claims process. An essential overview of New Zealand's founding document.
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English @ Te Papa
A Giant Storybook
For years 0 - 8. Levels of achievement 1-4.
Te Papa is like a giant storybook, and this programme enables students to use those stories to develop skills in oral and visual language. There are three Storybook options (when booking please tell us which option you wish your children to experience):
Treasures - stories based around iconic objects in Te Papa such as the Britten motorbike, Phar Lap, and the HQ Holden. Students also think about and discuss their own personal treasures and the stories connected with them, and can start on a written language follow-up to the Te Papa visit.
Pūrākau - stories of our ancestors (most suitable for years 1-4). Starting with the creation stories of Ranginui and Papatūāanuku and their many children, this programme includes storytelling through drama and getting students actively involved in bringing the stories to life.
Once upon an artwork - stories from a selection of narrative artworks on display in Te Papa. Students can hear the stories, interpret other works from their own perspectives, and then create their own piece of visual language or art to take away.
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Science | Putaiao @ Te Papa
Beaks 'n' Feet
For years 0 - 8. Levels of achievement 1-4.
Get up close and personal with bird specimens from our Education Collection - including our latest arrival, a kererū! Your students will discover and investigate the external characteristics that help these birds survive in their environment.
Fossils Rock!
For years 0 - 8. Levels of achievement 1-4.
This exciting education programme gives your students hands-on opportunities to explore the amazing creatures of Earth’s distant past. Students will learn about what features it took to be a dinosaur, what other creatures live at the same time as dinosaurs (and even earlier), and what we can learn about animals as a result of the fossils they’ve left behind - and what fossils can’t tell us. An investigation into the basics of the fossilisation process, specifically mineralisation, rounds out the education programme.
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Papatūānuku - Our Earth Stories
For years 3-10. Levels of achievement 2-5.
Explore the science of New Zealand's landforms through plate tectonics, earthquakes, and volcanoes. Examine evidence of change preserved in our rocks, and discover how animals and their environment have evolved over time. Encounter the amazing stories of Papatūānuku in an exciting, hands-on experience.
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Ngārara - The Insect World
For years 0 - 8. Levels of achievement 1-4.
For junior students, this programme is a general introduction to the world of insects. They will discover what an insect is, find out about body-part names and life cycles, and learn about some of New Zealand's unique insects.
For senior students, there are options of an introductory look at classification, the communication of social insects, or the attributes that help particular insects to survive.
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Environmental Education - Our Forests
For years 0 - 10. Levels of achievement 1 - 6
Introduce your students to the richness and diversity of New Zealand's forest with this science-based environmental education programme. Students will discover the stories of Tane's children and their interaction in the forest environment, and learn how to care for our forests and their inhabitants using Te Papa's fantastic natural environment exhibitions.
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Environmental Education - Our Oceans
For years 0 - 10. Levels of achievement 1 - 6
Explore New Zealand's rich ocean life with our science-based environmental education programme. Students will explore the many stories of Tangaroa's children and how these explain the interactions of ocean life. A key focus of the programme will be caring for the ocean environment.
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Technology | Hangarau @ Te Papa
Tumeke Harakeke - Amazing Flax
For years 0 - 8. Levels of achievement 1-4.
Explore the tikanga (culture) and uses of harakeke (New Zealand flax) in Aotearoa New Zealand in the past and today. Students find out how technology is used by society to make beautiful harakeke taonga (treasures). Students will then investigate the preparation of muka (the soft internal fibres of harakeke) in a hands-on workshop.
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Taonga Technology
For years 0 -10. Levels of achievement 1-5.
Students get the chance to handle Māori objects from Te Papa's education collection and explore how they were made, what they were used for, and what technologies we have today that do the same job. Through these objects, students learn how things from the past help us understand how the people who made them might have lived.
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