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Activities

Before reading

Prior knowledge

Revise the vocabulary and structures for Matā‘upu 5 and Matā‘upu 13. See below for ideas for some revision activities.

Revising clothes and colours

Invite the students to talk about their favourite clothes in pairs or small groups. What do you wear at home? When you go out with your friends? What colours are your favourite clothes? Can you name the colours in gagana Sāmoa? Then, as a class, list the colours they name on the board. You could revise the vocabulary for colours and for clothes by playing Memory or Fish with vocabulary cards. (Each matching pair would consist of one card with the word in gagana Sāmoa and one card with a matching picture or colour.)

You could also talk about Samoan traditional clothing and modern clothing, formal and informal clothing, or ask the students to describe the colours of what they wear to school.

Pronunciation of new language

If possible, ask a native speaker of gagana Sāmoa to model the correct pronunciation of any unfamiliar words for you and the students. This person could read the story to you and the class as the first reading, or you could record them reading it and play the recording to the class.

Introducing the book

Show the students the picture on page 10 of the book and ask them to describe what the girl is wearing. You could use a copy of this picture with the activity in Lesona I of Mua Ō! Matā‘upu 13. Then look at the picture on the cover of the book. Read the title together and have the students predict what they think the story will be about. Write the predictions on the whiteboard so that you can check them after reading the story.

Learning intentions

Share the learning intentions and discuss them with your students. Some examples of possible learning intentions for reading this story are given below.

After reading the text, I will be able to:

  • read and discuss a simple text
  • read and respond to questions about the different colours and types of clothing
  • read dialogue in gagana Sāmoa aloud with fluency
  • innovate on a simple text in gagana Sāmoa.

Reading the text

Read the story aloud to the students. As you read, show the pictures and read with lots of expression to help the students get the gist of the story. Their listening task could be to check their predictions about the story or to tick words for colours or clothes from a list that you have given them. If the students are likely to be confident with the language level of the story, you could ask them to identify unfamiliar words and try to work out their meaning from the context before looking them up in the glossary.

Colours, clothes, and pronouns

Ask the students which colours are in the story and list them on the whiteboard. Then ask them which items of clothing are in the story and list them separately on the whiteboard. Depending on the needs of your students, ask them to match the clothes and colours according to the story straight away or read the story again and ask the students to match them as you read. When they have matched the colours and clothes, point to a picture or hold up a real item for each phrase and practise saying each phrase as a class.

Have the students write the correct possessive pronoun before each item in your list of clothes, for example o‘u in front of tōtini papa‘e. Prompt the students to identify which pronoun is singular and which is plural by looking at the items of clothing they go with.

Ordering the story

Give each student or pair of students a sentence from the story. Tell them to practise reading their sentence aloud. After a few minutes, tell them to work as a class to line up in the order of the story. When they have lined up in order, have them tell the story. To provide more of a challenge, you could have the students memorise their sentence and then take the written sentence away before they organise themselves in order and retell the story.

Shared reading

After the class reading, go through the text page by page as a class. Prompt the students to use the illustrations and the words they know to work out what each page means. Write key phrases that you want to focus on, for example, ‘O fea o‘u .../Where are my ...? and ‘O fea lo‘u .../Where is my ...?, on the whiteboard.

Reading aloud

Invite students to read the story aloud with a partner, with one reading the girl’s part and one reading the mother’s. Their goal is to read fluently, with correct pronunciation and expression. Each can give their partner feedback on this.

After reading

Ask the students to share what they liked about the story, or about their partner’s reading.

Matching pictures with their correct descriptions

Give each student one card with a coloured picture of clothing and one with a written description of clothing. (The cards shouldn’t match.) Tell them to go and talk to the other students to find the correct picture for their written description (explain that they need to give their picture to the person with the correct description). Tell them to sit down when they have a matching pair of cards.

Check that students who are sitting down have the correct pair. Then give them a table with all the pictures of clothing and the descriptions in gagana Sāmoa jumbled up and tell them to match them all. When everyone has finished, go over the correct answers as a class.

Asking and answering questions about location

Practise the use of ‘O fea o‘u .../Where are my ...? and ‘O fea lo‘u .../Where is my ...?, ‘i luga/on, ‘i lalo/under, ‘i totonu/in or inside, and Va‘ai ‘i _______ o le _________. Give a student something that belongs to you. Tell them to put it on, under, or in something while you close your eyes. Open your eyes and ask O fea o‘u .../Where are my ...? or ‘O fea lo‘u .../Where is my ...? Write Va‘ai ‘i _______ o le _________ on the whiteboard and prompt the students to fill in the gaps and tell you how to find your object. Have the students give you something to hide. Tell them to close their eyes. Put their objects around the room. Have each student ask you where their object is. Tell them where it is, using the sentence above. Have the students do the same thing in groups. Before beginning this activity, make sure they know the words for their objects and for the classroom furniture. Alternatively, do the same activity with pictures of clothes rather than real items.

Innovating on the story

As a class, construct your own story on the basis of ‘O le Pūlou Pīniki. For example, it could start “Teacher, where is my yellow bag?” Students might then like to create their own innovated stories, in pairs, and then read them aloud (as fluently as possible) to another pair.

Reflecting on the learning

Have the students refer to their learning intentions and reflect individually or discuss in pairs whether they have fulfilled the intentions. Ask the students questions such as:

  • What helped you understand the story?
  • How can you use the new language and remember it?
  • What do you think are the next steps in your learning?

Click here for the English version of the story.


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