Te Mātaiaho lesson planner: a worked example for Year 4 reading

From Term 1 2026, English Years 0 to 10 and Mathematics and Statistics Years 0 to 10 are mandatory under Te Mātaiaho's refreshed Knowledge and Practice structure. The Ministry has removed the explicit Understand, Know, Do (UKD) labels in those areas. This post walks through how a Year 4 reading lesson actually comes together under the new structure, and how Lessona can draft the whole bundle in under five minutes so you can spend Saturday on something other than your laptop.

What is Te Mātaiaho (and what changed in 2026)?

Te Mātaiaho is the refreshed New Zealand Curriculum. It is the framework you plan against now. From Term 1 2026 the structure is intentionally simpler than what came before. Each refreshed learning area is anchored by two things:

• Knowledge: what students need to know.
• Practice: what students do with that knowledge.

The previous Understand, Know, Do (UKD) labels have been removed in the refreshed areas because the Ministry's review found they were difficult to assess consistently across schools. Knowledge and Practice is intended to give clearer, more actionable guidance about what to teach.

Two important caveats. First, the refresh is staggered. From Term 1 2026 the Knowledge and Practice structure is mandatory only for English and Mathematics and Statistics, Years 0 to 10. The other learning areas (Science, Social Sciences, Health and PE, the Arts, Technology, Learning Languages) stay on the legacy New Zealand Curriculum during 2026 and become mandatory under Te Mātaiaho from start of 2027 with full implementation by 2028. Second, Years 11 to 13 use NCEA achievement standards as the canonical framework. Te Mātaiaho phases in for Year 11 in 2028, Year 12 in 2029, Year 13 in 2030.

Practical implication for the Year 4 reading example below: it is English Year 0 to 10, so it sits squarely under the new Knowledge and Practice structure.

Knowledge and Practice, in plain English

• Knowledge

  The specific content this lesson teaches. For Year 4 reading: literal versus inferential questions, and the four Question Answer Relationship (QAR) types, right there, think and search, author and you, on your own.

• Practice

  What the student actually does with that knowledge. For this lesson: read a short passage, generate two literal and two inferential questions, then swap with a partner to answer in writing.

A worked example: Year 4 reading, 60 minutes

Here is the actual plan a teacher would walk into the classroom with. Topic: "What questions can readers ask?" Text: a one page excerpt from a New Zealand picture book the class is already familiar with. Phase banding: Phase 2 (Years 4 to 6) under the Te Mātaiaho 2026 refresh.

Three groups, three layers of support, one shared learning intention. The Knowledge is named on the board. The Practice is what the kids spend most of their time on. No separate "big idea" box, no UKD anchor table. The plan still has to be a good lesson, it just does not pretend the framework is the point.

From plan to classroom: the bundle

A plan is not a lesson. A lesson is the plan plus the slide deck you teach off, the printable the students write on, and the exit ticket you check at the end. Lessona generates the lesson plan from one prompt, and the slide deck, worksheet, and exit ticket as one-click follow-ons off that plan. For the worked example above, that means:

• A 12 slide presentation that opens with the hook question, names the four QAR types, shows examples, and ends with the partner share instruction.
• A two page printable with the graphic organiser, sentence stems for Group C, and an extension prompt for Group A.
• An exit ticket sized to a half A4 sheet, with the open sentence and a self-check tick box.

Edit anything that does not fit your class. Save the version that worked back to your library. Re-use it next year with one tweak.

Common questions