“Whai (String games)”, Ready to read, level 1, September 2018
08 September 2018
In this heart-warming story, Mahi teaches Hani how to make shapes with a piece of string. Hani struggles at first, but with Mahi’s patient teaching and his perseverance, he is eventually successful. This story gives an insight into a traditional game common to many cultures and demonstrates the concept of tuakana–teina (an older sibling or cousin helping a younger one).
You can find the audio story and teaching notes here: Whai (String games), Ready to read, level 1, September 2018
Other useful resources
Learning about technology through toys
This resource outlines years 1–2 students learning about technology through toys. They created their own toys to meet a brief.
Discussion questions
These could include:
- Could we make or team up with our reading buddies to make a simple toy or game for a classmate, friend, or brother or sister? Would this be a similar kindness shown by Mahi to Hani on how to play and make shapes with string?
- What size, shape, colour, smell, texture, and components will your toy or game have? (the physical attributes of the toy)
- What will the the toy/game do – for example it will be for playing and pretending to fly an aeroplane. (the functional attributes of the toy)
- Can we draw, make a model, and or talk about our possible toy/game?
- Which of our ideas is the best and matches the attributes we described?
- Did we produce a toy/game that matched the attributes?
Progress outcomes for discussion starters
| Component | Indicator | Level |
| Brief development |
| 1 |
| Outcome development and evaluation |
| 1 |