Maori art for kids

Tukutuku panels – Garcia's Galaxy

Help your students discover the beauty in other cultures with these fun multicultural crafts!

Hands On Crafts for Kids maori mask new zealand

Kids can make their own Maori Koru designs.

Fab Five have been busy creating feathers for our Korowai (cloak) of Knowledge. The feathers have the te reo Maori vocabulary we have come across in our Matariki readings and research that were new to us. Each student worked on their individual feathers and they looked pretty neat but when all our hard work was combined into the cloak, we thought it looked pretty amazing!

Kids can have a go at making these stunning pretend bone carving necklaces traditionally worn by Maoris in New Zealand and very popular today around the world. We have three designs to make. Bone carving necklace in koru (unfurling fern) shape.

This lesson is inspired by the Māori legend “How Maui slowed the Sun,” used to describe the Summer Solstice. In this lesson, students will draw, cut and assemble a patterned sun using a wax resist painting technique.The face of the sun has Māori design and the triangular sun’s rays are patterned with a variety of patterns chosen by the students. This project can be changed to reflect different cultures – using traditional or cultural patterns. Or draw your own design!

Kids can make their own Maori Koru designs.

Koru is a spiral shape representing the unfurling fern and is an integral symbol in Maori art from New Zealand. It symbolises new life, growth, strength and peace. This project was one of a few lessons I did with Year 1-2 students on art from different cultures. I had done it may years ago successfully