Samoan Language Week

Week 5, Term 2

Samoan Language Week

This week was the official Samoan language week in New Zealand. New Windsor School were running against "island time", that we celebrated Samoan language week last week.

Samoan language week a.k.a., 'Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa', is a special week where the Samoan language is celebrated. The theme for this year was 'Poupou.......'. This means that.......

We were lucky enough to have a guest speaker on Friday - Savea Al Harrington - who shared with us the importance of... He also talked to us about Tatau, or Samoan tattoo. We were pretty blown away by his explanation of tatau. Savea also talked about chiefly titles, and what the most important values are in Samoan culture. They are 'alofa' (love), 'fa'aaloalo' (respect), 'tautua' (service), and ...

Savea also brought along two important things to share with us - the 'to'oto'o' (staff), and the '' (fly whisk). He explained why those were important, and demonstrated how they were used.

As part of our celebration of Samoan language week, we also got to experience a 'Taste of Samoa'. Ms Key brought Koko Alaisa (cocoa rice) and Panikeke (pancakes) to class for us to eat. The food was delicious! To extend our learning experience, we had to write a short description of what we had tasted.

We also learnt how to make Sapasui (chop suey) from Mr T, another awesome parent who offered to share his knowledge and culture with us.

We are so grateful for these rich learning experiences that we're able to have, and really grateful that we have a wonderful group of parents supporting our learning!