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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

As a class, study the cover and title page of Ko e Kahoa Fai‘aho. Discuss the landscape that is visible on the cover and prompt the students to consider where the story might be set. Consider the differences between the New Zealand landscape and that of Tonga.

Ask if any students have been to Tonga and if any of them recognise the flowers in the basket on the title page. Encourage the students to notice the needle and thread on the title page and speculate on their purpose in the story.

Making heilala

Explain to the students that for this activity they will working in groups to make a mystery object. Then provide the groups with the sentences from page 6 with their order mixed up, as well as some flowers, needles, and thread.

Explain that the students will need to assemble the sentences into their correct order to work out what they are going to make. Once they have done this, one student in each group reads aloud the instructions in lea faka-Tonga for the other students to follow as they make their kahoa.

Once all groups have completed the task, have the students compare their work, then turn to page 6 of the storybook to check their creations.

To reinforce their learning, play the DVD from unit 17 and check how much the students can now understand without referring to the DVD transcript.

Reading the text

Read the first page of Ko e Kahoa Fai‘aho with the students and encourage them to study the illustration to help them establish where the story is taking place. Then have the students work in pairs to read and analyse each page of the story. They could:

  • describe what the illustrations show
  • summarise what happens on each page
  • make connections between an illustration and the supporting written text
  • draw a two-column table listing times and places mentioned at different stages in the story in lea faka-Tonga
  • study the use of pronouns (singular, dual, plural) to help summarise the relationship between the characters and their involvement in actions
  • identify aspects of the language and illustrations that demonstrate particular features of lea or anga faka-Tonga, for example, formulaic expressions, the processes involved in making kahoa, the choice of style of kahoa, the significance of wearing kie, and the associated values.

As you work through each page, identify any unfamiliar words or expressions (in the text or the discussion). Record these on the board.

Support the students to notice patterns of language that they will use in other contexts, for example, ‘Uluaki', tui ‘a e fau' ‘i he hui'/first, thread the fau through the needle; Hoko', tui‘i ha matala‘i heilala ki he fau'/next, thread a heilala flower onto the fau; Hokohoko atu ai pē ke lōloa fe‘unga/continue working this way till it’s long enough.

When you have discussed all the pages with the students, play the DVD from unit 17 of Faufaua! An Introduction to Tongan. Consider providing the students with a photocopy of the DVD transcript and replay the DVD as many times as necessary for the students to become familiar with the content.

After reading

Ask the students questions about their experience of reading the text, for example:

  • What did you enjoy about the story?
  • What did you learn from the story, both from the written text and the illustrations?
  • What connections can you make to your own language(s) and culture(s)?  

Birthday celebrations

As a class, discuss what preparations were being made for the celebration and who was involved in making the kahoa in Ko e Kahoa Fai‘aho. Encourage the students to identify the particular aspects of anga faka-Tonga and the Tongan values that the story expresses.

Ask experts from your local Tongan community to demonstrate for the students how to make various styles of kahoa heilala, and encourage the students to prepare questions (in English) to ask these experts.

If there are questions that your class has not been able to answer, set research tasks, and encourage the students to search the Internet or the library or talk with family members, other students, or experts from a local Tongan community.

Have the students work in groups or alone to research and prepare a presentation about one of the following topics:

  • the kinds of gifts offered at celebrations in anga faka-Tonga and the different events that are celebrated in anga faka-Tonga compared with the kinds of gifts and different events celebrated in the New Zealand culture
  • the roles for different people, the kinds of clothes the people wear, and the formalities that are followed in the twenty-first birthday celebration in anga faka-Tonga compared with similar events in New Zealand
  • the different styles of kahoa and the meaning and signficance of each style (see also “Ko e Heilala” from the Tupu series 2010)
  • the birthdays that have the most significance in anga faka-Tonga compared with important birthdays in New Zealand culture and why those birthdays might be significant.

Picture this

Have the students work in pairs, where one student uses lea faka-Tonga to describe a place or object from either this book or their own experiences (for example, making a kahoa, making the ipu kava / kava cup from unit 17, or visiting a place at a particular time of day) while the other student draws a picture of what the first student has described. Once the first description has been drawn, the students swap roles and repeat the activity.

Encourage the students to write down their descriptions and give them time to rehearse what they want to describe so they can build fluency and improve their knowledge of the language structures and vocabulary.

Adapting text

Have the students work in pairs or groups to write a simple story about making kahoa heilala or another item of their choice for a child’s early reading book in lea faka-Tonga. Combine this activity with an art class where the students can prepare illustrations for their books that are representative of actual cultural practices, for example, the woven baskets for collecting the heilala and the different styles of kahoa that can be created.

Reflecting on learning

Prompt the students to reflect on what they have learnt from working with this text, by asking 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 new learning about anga faka-Tonga?


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