Your Whare Tapa Whā Wall Display

Tamariki collaborate with others to complete a classroom wall display and have an understanding of te whare tapa whā.

We love Mason Durie's Te Whare Tapa Whā Māori health model because it encapsulate the whole of a person, keeping them at the centre. In terms of wellbeing, Te Whare Tapa Whā connects what we know in terms of the science of mental health and what makes a positive difference - e.g. connecting, learning, keeping active and taking notice (being mindful and present) and includes these as foundational parts of a person (whare) and who they are - taha tinana, taha hinengaro, taha wairua, taha whānau and whenua.

Why we love it? What's not to love!

First up - print your mosaic

This is the full 39 page mosaic your class can colour and put together collaboratively.

Printing on A3 paper gives you a wall display that's 2.25 metres wide and 1.25 metres high.

We've included numbers on each piece to make things easier!

If you're after something smaller

Otherwise for a much smaller whare (83.6cm wide by 62.7cm high printed on A4 paper) and not quite so complicated so better for our younger tamarki, then here is this option.

Pou labels and illustrations

And here are your pou 'labels' to add also.

Taha tinana illustrations - fruit bowl, veggies, sneakers, ball

Taha hinengaro illustrations -brain, breathing, journal, heart

Taha whānau illustrations - front door, whānau photos, online catch-up, playing with friends, cuddle

Taha wairua illustrations - yoga, whakapapa, gratitude journal, mountain

Whenua illustrations - waewae on the grass, out the window, vegetable garden, native bush and mountains, flowers

And all the others are coming week by week in line with our e-newsletter. To sign up and get things first, do this here.

You may choose to tell your tamariki that they're building their Whare Tapa Whā or keep it a sneaky secret pretending you don't know either!

Along the way, while tamariki are colouring and piecing the whare together, you might want to ask them to reflect on these types of questions:

• This is quite tricky, what is it you're noticing about the way you're working together?
• What's working well and what are you enjoying?
• What might we take from this to form part of our classroom kaupapa?

You might continue asking tamariki similar questions throughout the process being sure to capture their thoughts and feelings as part of your classroom values and first week learning about each other.

Torbay School (2024) by co-teachers Renee and Tania

Once your Whare Tapa Whā wall display is up, you may want to introduce this is your classroom whare and that it's all about looking after ourselves and each other over this year (and beyond).

This handy worksheet means that you can return to Te Whare Tapa Whā any time to continue to kōrero and activate all the things that are important to us and nurture us.

If you're keen to add your school, region or classroom manu and rākau, we've been taking orders for these and they can all be found here - Explore Your Rākau and Manu

As well as this, join up to our e-newsletter where we're offering a whole year of Whare Tapa Whā hauora learning and exploration! And head to our new Whare Tapa Whā filter at the top of this page (right hand side) to explore each pou using Sparklers activities and ideas.

We're really looking forward to seeing these wall displays - please send photos to [email protected] We would LOVE that!

If you're wanting to familiarise yourself with Fill my Whare Tapa Whā - it's a Sparklers fave! But we promise to be pinning all we do this year to Te Whare Tapa Whā and continue this journey. Ngā mihi for joining us.

Sir Mason Durie and all your mahi, which acts as our inspiration.