Te reo Māori for kids: words, songs, learning together

Children learn te reo Māori the way they learn any language: by hearing it every day from the people around them, and using it for real things. Start with a handful of words they can point at, such as kurī ‘dog’, ihu ‘nose’ and whero ‘red’, the numbers tahi ‘one’ to tekau ‘ten’, and the phrases of the day, from Mōrena. ‘Good morning.’ to pō mārie ‘good night’. The single biggest thing a parent can do is learn alongside them, and this guide sets out how.

Updated 7 October 2026 · 10 min read

Tap 🔊 to hear an example. Māori examples play Papa Reo, the te reo Māori voice made by Te Hiku Media from recordings of native speakers.

How do children learn te reo Māori?

By being surrounded by it. That is the idea behind Te Kōhanga Reo, the Māori-language early childhood movement. The first kōhanga reo opened in Wainuiomata on 13 April 1982; the Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust says more than 50,000 children have attended one since, and that there are now more than 400 across Aotearoa, with nearly 9,000 mokopuna enrolled. Many of those first children, the Trust notes, are now parents of the second generation.

Two of the principles the Trust sets out for new whānau are worth reading as a parent anywhere:

• Ko te reo Māori anake i roto i Te Kōhanga Reo ia rā, ia rā: only te reo Māori in Te Kōhanga Reo, every day.
• E taea ana e ngā mātua te ako i te taha o ngā mokopuna: parents can learn alongside the children.

The second is the practical one for most families. A child will only use the words they hear, so the te reo at home can only grow as fast as the adults’ te reo grows. The rest of this page gives you words to start with, songs and games, the free resources made for tamariki, and a plan for learning together.

First Māori words for kids

The best first words are the ones a child can point at. Every word below is in Verbavia’s course with a Papa Reo recording, so you can tap to hear it before you say it. Māori nouns do not change for more than one: te kurī ‘the dog’, ngā kurī ‘the dogs’.

The body

One sentence a child will use the first time they bump into something: Kei te mamae taku upoko. ‘My head hurts.’

Colours

A colour comes after the thing it describes, or in a short he sentence: He whero te whare. ‘The house is red.’, He kikorangi te rangi. ‘The sky is blue.’, He mā, he pango hoki te ngeru. ‘The cat is white and black.’ The word for colour itself, tae, is, in Te Aka Māori Dictionary’s words, “not normally used before the names of colours”, so a red thing is simply whero.

Animals

With animals the first questions come easily. He aha tēnei? ‘What is this?’ gets He kurī tēnei. ‘This is a dog.’, and Kei hea te kurī? ‘Where is the dog?’ gets Kei te whare te kurī. ‘The dog is at the house.’ A book with animal pictures and those two questions will fill a bedtime.

Family

Mum is māmā and dad is pāpā; a baby is pēpi; grandmother is kuia and grandad koro. Children are tamariki (one child is tamaiti) and grandchildren mokopuna. Brothers and sisters are where Māori differs most from English: the word depends on who is speaking, so an older sister is a girl’s tuakana but a boy’s tuahine. The guide to Māori family words sets out all four sibling words with a worked example, which is worth reading before you teach them.

Numbers 1 to 10

Counting aloud uses the bare numbers. Saying how many there are adds a small word: E rua ngā pukapuka. ‘There are two books.’ for things, and the prefix toko- for people, as in Tokotoru ngā tamariki. ‘There are three children.’ The questions are E hia ngā pukapuka? ‘How many books?’ and Tokohia ngā tamariki? ‘How many children?’ The guide to Māori numbers, days and months explains both rules and goes on to eleven and beyond.

Everyday Māori phrases for home

Phrases tied to the same moment every day are the ones that stick, for you and for them. Pick one routine and use its phrases until nobody has to think about them, then add the next.

The two goodbyes are not interchangeable: haere rā is said to the person going, e noho rā to the person staying, so on the way to school the child says one and the parent the other. For greetings, thanks and the phrases adults need, see common Māori phrases.

Praise and encouragement

Ka pai said warmly is praise, but it has a second, sarcastic sense too. The guide to te reo Māori for teachers explains it, and has the instructions and praise used in classrooms and early learning centres, many of which work just as well at home.

Māori songs for kids

Songs are how most children first learn whole phrases. These are named by Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, the Māori Language Commission, in its ideas for using te reo; the lyrics are not reproduced here, so listen to them from the source.

Te Taura Whiri also suggests watching a Disney film in te reo Māori together; the songs from them are on the music streaming services. Its ideas page links to each of the waiata above. If your child is at kōhanga reo, kura or an early learning centre, ask which waiata they sing there and learn those first: singing at home what they sing with their friends is twice the practice.

Games and activities in te reo

All of these come from Te Taura Whiri’s suggestions, and most need nothing but time:

• Easy games with no equipment. Te Taura Whiri points to a video by Pania Papa of Māori games that need nothing at all.
• Reo Māori bingo. Te Taura Whiri notes that games are sold and templates are online; with the numbers above, a home-made card works too.
• Quizzes. Kahoot has ready-made te reo Māori quizzes for a family to play together on a phone or tablet.
• Yoga in te reo. Te Taura Whiri points to reo Māori yoga videos made for tamariki.
• Reading together. Read to your tamariki in te reo; Te Taura Whiri points to the Te Reo Māori Bookshop for a range of books in te reo.

And the simplest of all: point and ask. He aha tēnā? ‘What’s that?’ — He pukapuka. ‘A book.’ Taking turns to ask and answer uses every word on this page, and the child gets to be the one asking.

Free te reo Māori resources for children

Each of these was checked on its own page in October 2026.

• Verbavia (our own course), for the adults. The te reo Māori course is free on the web and works in any browser, including on a phone. It is made for adults and teenagers, not young children: Verbavia is not directed at children under 13. It is the course for the parent, grandparent or older sibling who wants to be able to keep the te reo going at home. More on it below.
• Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori. Free resources to download at reomaori.co.nz, from posters and word lists to a pronunciation guide, which you can filter for Tamariki and Whānau-friendly.
• MĀORI+ Tamariki Hā. The children’s section of Māori Television’s streaming service, MĀORI+, including Kiri and Lou, the animated series “reversioned into Māori language”. You need to sign in or create an account, and MĀORI+ says some content may not be available outside Aotearoa.
• Kura Mō Ngā Mokopuna. A series of educational videos for tamariki, which Te Taura Whiri describes as taught by experts and by graduates of kōhanga reo and kura kaupapa Māori.
• Te Aka Māori Dictionary. For the parent, not the child: look up any word, its macrons and its example sentences before you teach it.

One book is worth knowing about though it is not free: Māori at Home by Scotty and Stacey Morrison (Penguin, 2017), which covers the te reo of an ordinary household, from getting ready for school to birthdays and the beach.

Kōhanga reo, and a course for kōhanga whānau

If you live in New Zealand and your child is young, the Trust’s website lists where its kōhanga reo are, so you can find one near you. For whānau already in kōhanga, the Trust runs Te Ara Tuatahi mō Te Reo Māori, a one-year (36-week) Level 2 course for learners aged 17 and over, supported by their kōhanga whānau, which teaches karakia, mihimihi, waiata and basic situational phrases. Its fees were listed as “TBC” in October 2026.

How a family can learn te reo Māori together

None of these needs fluency to begin. They need an adult who is a few steps ahead, and the habit of using the words every day.

1. The adults take a course. Verbavia’s course is hand-written from the first word to the end of B1, 311 lessons, with no AI-generated lessons; after the last one, the daily lesson goes back over B1. Words come in frequency order, the grammar is explained in English, and each lesson has reading, listening and writing, with every example voiced by Papa Reo, Te Hiku Media’s native te reo voice, so you hear it said properly before you say it to your children. It has no speaking section for Māori. It is free; a short ad plays before lessons unless you take Premium (US$4 a month, with a 7-day trial), which also lifts the limit of one language at a time. A teenager of 13 or over can do it alongside you.
2. A phrase of the week. Write one phrase on the fridge, such as Haere mai ki te kai!, and use it every time the moment comes. Fifty-two phrases is a year.
3. Labels around the house. tatau ‘door’, matapihi ‘window’, tūru ‘chair’, tēpu ‘table’, moenga ‘bed’, kīhini ‘kitchen’, wharepaku ‘toilet’. A label is a reminder for the adult as much as the child.
4. Kōrero at meals. Te Taura Whiri suggests a “Kai and Kōrero” where only te reo is spoken. At home that can be the first five minutes of dinner: Kei te pēhea koe?, He pai te kai., Ka pai.
5. A te reo time or place. Te Taura Whiri also suggests a set time, or a corner of the house, where the whānau speaks only te reo. Start with ten minutes.
6. Sing. The waiata above, in the car and at bath time. Children remember words in songs long before they use them in sentences.

Get the sounds right from the start, because children copy exactly what they hear: the pronunciation guide covers the vowels, the macrons, wh and ng. And when the first words come easily, how many Māori words you need shows what to learn after them, and in what order.

Sources

1. Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust: Mō Mātau (About us)
2. Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust: Whakauru Whānau Hou (Induction for new whānau)
3. Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust: Find a Kōhanga Reo
4. Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust: Te Ara Tuatahi mō Te Reo Māori
5. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori: Huatau | Ideas
6. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori: Reo Māori resources
7. Atareta & Te Haakura: Pakipaki Mai (official video)
8. Health New Zealand: I te Tōnga o te Rā (lullaby)
9. MĀORI+: Tamariki Hā
10. MĀORI+ Help: What ways can I watch MĀORI+?
11. Penguin NZ: Māori at Home
12. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: tae (colour)
13. Te Aka Māori Dictionary