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Draft curriculum content

This page is based on the draft Year 3 content for Social Sciences, which is currently open for feedback. Schools are not required to implement changes until the consultation process is confirmed.

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Consultation for Year 0 to 10 draft curriculum content

The Social Sciences help students understand how people live together, make decisions, and shape communities so they can participate thoughtfully in society. In Years 0 to 3, students build foundational knowledge and start to explore important concepts, such as identity, family, and community.

Teaching is structured around 4 strands that focus on key areas of learning. In Year 3, these include:

  • History: Māori society before European settlement, Ancient Egypt c.3100–30 BCE
  • Civics and Society: days of commemoration and celebration
  • Geography: Oceania and its ocean environments and climate
  • Economic Activity: the decimal system and the concept of exchange.

History#

Ideas to help at home

With your child, you could:

  • discuss what life was like for Māori before the arrival of Europeans, including homes, food and environment, and iwi and hapū structures
  • discuss how life has changed for your family over time to help your child understand that the past was different from today
  • make a family timeline and add key events, talking about how timelines show when things happened, and the further apart events are on the line, the more time passed between them
  • visit local museums, pā sites, or other historical sites to explore the tools, artefacts, and remnants that help us understand the past
  • use words like 19th century, migration, Polynesia, settlement, civilisation, Bronze Age, society.

What the teacher will focus on#

The teacher will focus on Māori society before European settlement and the civilisation of Ancient Egypt (c.3100-30 BCE). For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:

  • describe how time can be divided into centuries and how this can be marked on a timeline
  • describe Māori society in pre-European times and how this changed over time, for example:
    • adaptation from a tropical environment to a temperate environment
    • transition from loose family camps to structured tribal communities
    • the development of new ways of obtaining food and interacting with the environment
  • understand the sources that can be used to learn about Māori society before European settlement and Ancient Egypt, for example, whakapapa, excavations, hieroglyphics
  • count backwards and forwards through time, for example, forwards from year 1 for AD or CE and backwards for BC or BCE
  • describe features of Ancient Egyptian civilisation, for example, a hierarchical society ruled by a pharaoh, construction of the pyramids, use of the Nile for trade and irrigation, and how they compare with communities in the Stone Age.

Civics and Society#

Ideas to help at home

With your child, you could:

  • talk about important days for your family, for example, religious or cultural days, anniversaries, birthdays and national holidays, and discuss why they are important and what your family does on those days
  • attend celebrations of other families or groups and discuss why they might have different important days, or do different things on those days, and what the similarities are between them
  • use words like commemoration, celebration, remembrance, significance.

What the teacher will focus on#

The teacher will focus on days of commemoration and celebration. For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:

  • understand that a commemoration day is a special time to honour and remember a significant event or important person
  • identify some of Aotearoa New Zealand’s national days of commemoration, for example, Waitangi Day, Matariki, and explain what is being commemorated, why, and how
  • recognise that people from different groups celebrate other important days, such as cultural and faith observations like Chinese New Year, seasonal and unofficial events like Halloween, and fundraising and awareness days like Daffodil Day
  • identify similarities and differences in the commemoration days celebrated around the world, for example, Samoan Independence Day
  • explain how commemorations and celebrations help create a shared sense of identity for the people taking part.

Geography#

Ideas to help at home

With your child, you could:

  • use a world map to see the size of the Pacific Ocean, then use Google Earth to zoom in and look at the individual countries in the Pacific, using words like continent, island, country, ocean, sea and coast
  • talk about the importance of being a kaitiaki | guardian of our environment, and visit a local coastal area or waterway to remove rubbish and observe the human impact on the wildlife there
  • make a simple rain gauge, encouraging your child to add the measurements themselves, then record rain levels over a week.

Google Earth

What the teacher will focus on#

The teacher will focus on Oceania and its ocean environments and climate. For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:

  • interpret maps and other sources to identify:
    • oceans, continent, islands, countries, and ecosystems that make up Oceania
    • 3 cultural and geographic regions of the Pacific: Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia
    • seas and oceans around New Zealand
  • communicate ideas about the distinct cultures of Indigenous peoples in New Zealand, Australia, and Papua New Guinea
  • use flow maps to show how goods are traded across Oceania
  • explain the importance of the coastline to people and wildlife, and the impact of pollution
  • explain the concept of kaitaikitanga and the importance of te moana to Māori cultural identity
  • examine factors that affect climate, for example, latitude, height above sea level, distance from the ocean, seasonal changes
  • describe 3 different kinds of rainfall: convection, frontal, relief
  • collect and record data about temperature and rainfall.

Economic Activity#

Ideas to help at home

With your child, you could:

  • use a supermarket catalogue or website and calculate how much change you will get from $10, or $20 when you buy individual items, you could make some money to help your child think this through
  • set up a pretend shop with items from your house, taking turns being the customer and the shopkeeper, and discuss which purchases are a necessity or a luxury.

What the teacher will focus on#

The teacher will focus on the decimal system and the concept of exchange. For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:

  • understand that New Zealand’s currency uses a decimal system, with one dollar equal to 100 cents
  • use addition and subtraction to work out how much money is needed to pay for a purchase and how much change should be given
  • role-play a simple exchange where two people meet their wants and needs using money, for example, buying groceries, or by swapping something else, for example, exchanging home produce.