Important life moments

Explore how important events in our lives have shaped our identities. Using the Oho My events, My time and My identity cards, the Ata Impact and Emotion cards, and the Important life moments activity sheet, explore how events and our responses to them have shaped who we are. 

Oho: Resource collection

This activity is part of the Oho resource collection. See the resource carousel below for more.

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Learners will 

• Explore the personal and wider cultural connections between place, language, time, events, people, and identity. 
• Express and listen to ideas confidently. 
• Describe themselves in relation to the groups within their class and to the whole class. 
• Explore and discuss similarities and differences and how they contribute to the unique whānau, culture, and identities of each class member. 
• Identify personal strengths of theirs and others. 
• Develop a deeper understanding of their whānau and personal histories. 
• Investigate the factors that shape our identities and how. 
• Identify different ways identities, languages, cultures, and values are and could be represented in learning communities. 

Ways to use the resource 

• Connect this activity to Enriching Local Curriculum (ELC) by exploring the names of the places you visit. 
• Centre these activities around relevant global, national, or community places, events or themes. 
• Try the activities as an individual, as a small group and as a whole class. 
• Use the resources at home to get a deeper understanding of whānau culture. 
• Capture outputs in a format of your choice. 
• Use insights from these conversations in your learning design. 
• If you don’t have the Ata resource, download and print the cards or use the blank Oho cards to create your own. 
• Use significant events that took place in your region or community. 

Shown here: The Important life moments activity sheet with Oho and Ata cards placed on it. 

Instructions 

What you will need:

• Oho My events, My time and My identity cards
• Ata Impact and Emotion cards
• Important life moments activity sheet: One per person or group. 

Set up 

1. Prepare cards 

This activity uses a combination of Oho and Ata cards. Add or remove My events, My time, Impact (Ata), Emotions (Ata) and My identity cards to suit the context of your classroom. 

2. Prepare activity sheets 

Print or photocopy one Important life moments activity sheet for each person or group. 

Choose an event that is particularly meaningful to you or your whānau. For example, it might be something that has been on your mind lately. Maybe it’s something you’ve done, something you want to do, something you want to find out more about or something that is requiring focus. 

Place cards on the activity sheet. Discuss why each selection was made and how it relates to the other cards. We suggest introducing the card types, one set at a time, as you work through the steps. 

Activity 

1. My events 

Select a My events card that represents a meaningful event. 

2. My time 

Select a My time card that represents when this did or will take place. 

3. Impact 

Select an Impact card that represents what was or will be significant about this event. 

4. Emotion 

Select an Emotion card that represents how this did or might make you feel. 

5. My identity 

Select a My identity card that represents how this has shaped or will shape who you are. 

Discuss and compare 

Explore the different perspectives and ideas around events, impacts, emotions, and identity. Then, discuss and compare your findings with the group or classroom.

Download

See Materials that come with this resource to download: 

• Oho Important life moments activity sheet (.pdf)
• Oho Important life moments teacher support material 
  (.pdf)
• Oho Important life moments cards (printable) (.zip)
• Oho Important life moments cards (jpgs) (.zip)
• Oho blank cards (printable) (.pdf)

Next steps

Explore other aspects of Identities, languages, cultures and values with activities such as 'My unique whānau', 'My whānau in my place of learning', and 'My culture in my place of learning'.