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Activities

Learning activities

You do not have to use all the activities suggested below. Choose from and adapt them to suit your students’ needs.

Introducing the text

Display the cover of the book. Tell the students to work in pairs and discuss (in Niue as much as possible) what and who they can see in the illustrations.

Discuss their ideas as a whole group and put labels in vagahau Niue on the illustration. Confirm that the English translation of the title is “Playing in the Mud”.

Dictation

Dictation is useful for improving the students’ understanding of sound–spelling relationships and building good pronunciation.

Give the students a copy of the invitation on the title page with the text removed. Read aloud the text on the invitation, pausing at the end of each phrase to give students time to write. In English, tell them to add punctuation where appropriate. Hand out copies of the complete title page for the students to check what they have written and correct their work.

You could find out how well each student did and ask them to write a note to themselves about what they need to focus on so they can improve their written accuracy and their recognition of sound–spelling combinations.

Ask the students what kind of text the invitation is. Go through the invitation, discussing the meaning of the words and phrases.

Have students work in pairs and discuss what they think will happen in the story. Have the pairs share their ideas. Use this discussion to note and introduce key vocabulary for the story. Record and display the key vocabulary and the students’ predictions.

Listening activity

Give small groups of students sets of the illustrations from the book (photocopied and with no text). Read the text or play an audio-recording (using a speaker of vagahau Niue). Have the groups put the illustrations in the correct order as they listen to the story. Give them time to check and discuss their sequence. You may need to repeat the listening so that your students can complete their task.

Have the students tell each other, in vagahau Niue, what they can see happening in the illustrations.

Tell them they will check their sequence of illustrations and their predictions as they read.

Reading the text

Have students work in pairs to read and discuss each page. After the pairs have read each page (or two or three pages, depending on the needs of your students), discuss their ideas as a group and write up the relevant language and cultural aspects. As you work though the text, support the students to:

  • check the glossary and the previous units in Haia! An Introduction to Vagahau Niue for words and expressions that they don’t know or can’t remember
  • describe what the illustrations show
  • make connections between the illustrations and the written text
  • summarise the main ideas on each page, in particular, who is mentioned and what they do or say
  • identify language and cultural practices, for example, formulaic expressions, language for talking about celebrations, and the associated values.

 

As a class, identify key unfamiliar words or expressions (in the text or the discussion). Record the words and expressions on the board.

Support students to notice patterns of language, for example, Ko e fulufuluola hā ia! / How beautiful they are!; Kua manako a ia ke fefeua / He wants to play. After reading, you can show students how they can use these patterns in other contexts. Provide opportunities for them to practise and then use the language to communicate.

After reading

Research projects and posters

As a class, discuss some of the aspects of Niue culture in the story and the Niue values that the story expresses. Have the students work in small groups to look at the illustrations and write down the things that are relevant to aga fakamotu, for example, the patterns on the fabrics, the birthday boy’s chair decoration, and the kinds of food.

Have each group share their observations. Build a list of the aspects of Niue culture shown in the illustrations. Divide these aspects into research projects. Tell each group to choose one aspect, research it, and develop an attractive and informative poster about it that contains illustrations and written text in vagahau Niue. Note that while the research and the presentation will probably need to be in English, the poster will be in vagahau Niue.

Below are some ideas for posters on aspects of aga fakamotu:

 

  • important celebrations for children
  • clothes for special occasions
  • food at celebrations
  • gifting practices
  • crafts, including items to wear
  • family relationships
  • Niue patterns on clothes and fabrics
  • invitation practices
  • Niue values, with illustrative examples from the text.

 

When the posters have been completed, display them on the classroom wall. Have each group present and explain their posters (in English when necessary). Following each poster presentation, have the class discuss:

 

  • similarities and differences in relation to their own cultures
  • the values related to the cultural practices of each culture.

 

Plays

Have the students work in groups to prepare plays in Niue that summarise the main events in Fefeua he Pelapela. Each student can be one of the characters (the groups don’t have to include all of the characters), and one student can be the narrator. Support the students to use the vocabulary and structures from the book and from their work with the units from Haia!

Give them time to rehearse their plays before they present them to the class to enable them to build fluency in the delivery of their lines and knowledge of the structures and vocabulary.

Reflecting on learning

Help the students to review their goals for working with this text, individually and as a class. You can help them reflect not only on their learning but also on how they learn. Students could share these reflections with another student, with a small group of students, or with the whole class. As a prompt, ask the students questions such as:

 

  • What strategies helped you to understand the story?
  • What will help you to remember the new language?
  • How can you use the new language in other contexts?
  • Can you identify significant aspects of new learning about aga fakamotu?

 

For example, a student might say: “I can now describe the importance of particular celebrations in aga fakamotu and the practices and values associated with them.”

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