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Ko e Mataafaga i Avatele Teacher support materials

by Lynn Lolokini Pavihi

This story supports:

  • Unit 17 Tau Finagalo / Feelings
  • Unit 18 Talahauaga ke he tau Matakavi / Describing Places

Schools, ECE centres and education providers can order the set of six Haia! An Introduction to Vagahau Niue storybooks from  Down the back of the chair. Enter item number MOE11625 into the search box.

Text features

Language features

The language features of this story include:

  • words transliterated from English – pasi, motokā, pakete, agikolo
  • common formulaic expressions – To liu mai vave au! / I’ll be back soon!; Mo au foki/me too
  • use of nakai in questions and nākai to indicate a negative  – Mafola nakai? / how’s things?; Kua nākai tuai tupetupe a ia / he’s not worried any more
  • singular and plural verb forms – poi/run (singular); tafepoi/run (plural); hohoko/reach, arrive (plural)
  • colloquialisms – Ae tahakau / hey guys (tahakau is commonly used in an informal situation addressing a group of people you know well)
  • words and phrases for expressing temperatures and feelings – mafola/good, all right; vela/hot; hauhau/cool; pōtake/shallow; mainiini/excited; tupetupe/worried; fiafia lahi / very happy; makalili/cold; hoge/hungry; matehoge/starving
  • the term for dinner, which gives the time of the day – kai afiafi / dinner (literally “evening food”)
  • mo/and – Makalili foki ni au mo e hoge / I’m cold and hungry.

Cultural features

The cultural features in this story include the following.

  • The names are common contemporary names in Niue families: Iakopo, Loi, Hiti, Uni.
  • The season for catching kaloama in Niue is between December and March.
  • The illustrations show two of the boys wearing lavalava at the beach. A lavalava is a piece of fabric wrapped around the waist and worn as a casual garment. The fabric is often patterned with Niue designs.
  • In Niue, the boys would usually go swimming in the sea. In New Zealand, not everyone lives close to the sea, so a nearby swimming pool or even a river would also be common places to swim. There are no rivers on Niue.
  • Tahi refers to the ocean, with a focus on the part of the sea that goes from the beach or the cliff edge right out to the deep. Moana is used to refer to the deep ocean.
  • The beach at Avatele is well known in Niue. It is located south of Alofi, the capital. There is a boat ramp that is used by commercial operators as well as by local people and a platform that people can fish from. It is a popular place to swim or snorkel for locals and tourists, but care is needed as there are strong currents in certain places. The white sand beach is made of small pieces of coral, sharp enough to hurt sensitive feet. In the illustrations, the boys wear jandals to protect their feet. Locals keep their outrigger canoes at the beach, covered by coconut leaves.
  • The boys use simple fishing rods made of wood because the kaloama are easy to catch. The term for fishing rod in vagahau Niue is akau hī / wood for fishing.

Links to the New Zealand Curriculum

Key competencies

Reading and working with Ko e Mataafaga i Avatele could help students develop key competencies set out in the New Zealand Curriculum: Key Competencies.

Values

The story illustrates many values that relate to the New Zealand Curriculum: Values, in particular community and participation, and to the core Niue value of loto fakamokoi/a generous nature.

Cross-curricular links

Learners who are working at levels 1–2 in Niue may be working at higher curriculum levels in other learning areas. You will need to consider this in order to make effective cross-curricular links. Here are three examples of cross-curricular achievement objectives that could be linked to this story:

Health and physical education, level 3

Relationships with Other People

Students will:

  • Identify and compare ways of establishing relationships and managing changing relationships.

Social sciences, level 3

Students will gain knowledge, skills, and experience to:

  • Understand how cultural practices vary but reflect similar purposes
  • Understand how people view and use places differently.

Learning languages: Achievement objectives

Students will:

  • receive and produce information
  • produce and respond to questions and requests
  • show social awareness when interacting with others

(Communication strand, relating to selected linguistic and sociocultural contexts)

  • recognise that the target language is organised in particular ways
  • make connections with their own language(s)

(Language knowledge strand)

  • recognise that the target culture is organised in particular ways
  • make connections with known culture(s).

(Cultural knowledge strand)

Tau Hatakiaga ma e Vagahau Niue: The Niue Language Guidelines, levels 1 and 2

Students will:

  • recognise and express number, time, and location (1.4)
  • communicate about people, places, and things (2.1)
  • communicate about feelings and needs (2.5)
  • understand and express concepts of amount, quality, and state (2.6).

Learning outcomes

Below are some possible learning outcomes for reading this story. Select from and adapt these to meet the needs of your students and share the outcomes with them.

After reading and working with this story, I will be able to:

  • read the story and understand it
  • identify the main ideas in the story
  • retell the story
  • recognise and use language to describe places and feelings
  • write texts for particular purposes with appropriate use of macrons and correct spelling
  • research and present information on aspects of aga fakamotu related to the story.

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