Tamihana (Katu) Te Rauparaha
Teaching Options with Children
Theme:
Tamihana Te Rauparaha and the spread of the gospel in Aotearoa New Zealand
Aims:
*To promote the concepts of peace, love for enemies, and the sharing of the Gospel.
*To introduce an aspect of the history of the church in Aotearoa New Zealand.
*To introduce a role model from history.
*To raise awareness of the involvement of Māori in the spread of the Gospel in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Objectives:
Children should be able to:
Identify aspects of the story of Tamihana that provide a model for Christian to follow today.
Memory verse:
And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. 1 John 3:23
Ko tāna ture ano tēnnei, kia whakapono tātou ki te ingoa o tāna Tama, o Ihu Karaiti, kia aroha ano tētahi ki tētahi, kia rite ano ki te ture homai e ia ki a tātou.
Possible Activities:
Read or tell the story of Tamihana Te Rauparaha to the children.
The pictures of Tamihana, Bishop Selwyn and Matene Te Whiwhi could be blown up to use as visual aids.
A map of New Zealand could also be shown to show the journey from the Kapiti coast (just north of Wellington) to Otago and Southland.
Get the children to list some of the things that Tamihana did that God would have liked eg: loved Jesus, stopped fighting, made friends with the Ngāi Tahu people, told the Ngāi Tahu people about Jesus.
Add to the list things that we can do in our lives that would show that we love Jesus, and love other people, e.g. sharing things, being friends, forgiving people.
Children could then draw a picture of themselves doing one or more of these things.
Drama
Children could act out the story of Tamihana.
Choose children to play the parts of Te Rauparaha, Tamihana, The missionary, Matene te Whiwhi, Bishop Selwyn, The Ngāi Tahu people, other members of Ngāti Toa.
Children could either mime the story as you read it, or older children could write a script to
(Do stress to the children that when they act out Te Rauparaha fighting with the Ngāi Tahu people that they are only to pretend that no one is to get hurt!!)
Puzzle sheets
The three puzzle sheets contain activities to reinforce the story and the memory verse.
Sheet A is aimed at children aged 10 + years,
sheet B for 8-10years and
sheet C for 5-7 years.
Prayer
Dear Jesus, please help us not to fight with other people, but to be friends with them instead. Help us to tell people about you like Tamihana did. Amen.
Songs
Te Aroha
This Little Light of Mine